well. this coverage will continue on with "fox & friends." that continue right now. >> yes, thank you for joining us. a fox news alert this morning. chaos in belgium. an entire city in lockdown. a possible homicide bomb rips through the brussels airport. just an hour later, explosions rock at least two metro stations near e.u. headquarters. local news stations saying 13 people are dead. smoke seen rising from the terminal as terrified passengers are running from the fallen glass and from falling ceiling tiles. airport officials say the blast might have happened near the american airlines departure area. however, the airline is saying that might not be the case.

>> this has not been confirmed by sources. >> the airport is evacuated. shut down for the day. travelers waiting outside on the tarmacs. all flights are canceled as officials work to diverting incoming planes. >> and meanwhile, in the nearby molenbeek subway stations, several injured in separate explosions. clearly this is coordinated to happen at the same time, 8:00 eastern time. they hit the airport. they hit the subway stops. the entire metro system has been shut down along with belgian universities and the entire european commission. the european parliament is just 500 yards away from one of the metro stops, brian. >> yeah. the explosion coming just days after europe's most wanted man, suspected terrorist attacker salah abdeslam, was arrested in molenbeek. that was on friday. and the word is he was talking. and the word was that we heard over the weekend that more attacks were about to be

implemented and pulled off, had he not been scooped up. the question is, was there a sense possibly that the pressure was getting so great on his would-be collaborators that they thought they had to act now? a lot of speculation. >> you see the people running from the airport. in the background, you see the glass blown out of the windows. smoke rising from the top of the airport there. people running for their lives. can you imagine the terror? >> absolutely. the buildings apparently shook, according to people who were inside. you see some of those survivors, some of the people covered with dust from the explosion. others covered with blood. witnesses described seeing people dismembered, terrible. here's one of the -- the giveaways that it was coordinated aside from the fact that apparently they t happened at 8:00 eastern time, 7:00 a.m. greenwich meantime. and that is just before the shots were fired at the airport. the shooter apparently was shouting in arabic before the

blast. so there were shots, and there were blasts. don't know what caused the explosion. >> the original report said shots fired. and then the explosion took place. made you think it was some type of engagement. like it bring in somebody who is all over this terror stuff, dr. sebastian gorka. a major general with the matthew c. homeownerer distinguished chair of military theory at marine corps university. and understands that when things happen in brussels, oftentimes they emanate from the middle east. dr. gorker, welcome back. what have you obtained from what we were able to find out about the multiple explosions in brussels? >> clearly, brian, the ttp, so the tactics, the techniques and the procedures of this attack follow very closely the jihadi methodology that we've become unfortunately used to since 9/11. so when it's al qaeda in terms of 9/11 or the london bombings

or the madrid bombings or when it was isis and the paris attacks most recently, the idea that you have synchronized cells, synchronized teams that mix a different type of attack methodology, small arms or grenades with suicide vests, this is typical jihadi methodology. >> sure. >> the idea that you create as much chaos as possible by having synchronized attacks. >> they certainly did it today. we should point out that brussels has been on threat-level four, the maximum threat level, ever since the arrest of, you mentioned the paris attacks, salah abdeslam, was scooped up not long ago, doctor. the worry was that essentially there would be revenge attacks if that ever happened. it looks like the takedown of the trigger for this, doesn't

i it? >> potentially. let's be careful here. we have a new book out on jihad, and i discuss in detail the way terrorists prepare for attacks. jihadis aren't spontaneous. their not extra capricious. they prepare for months or years, the 9/11 attacks took years to plan. here the idea that they were just doing a revenge attack is unlikely. they were probably planning to attack the airport or subway. may have been scheduled for months in the future. perhaps this recent arrest brought the clock forward, but i think this is something potentially that they were planning for a long, long time. >> dr. gorka, you've talked about in the past about the lack of borders in europe. why do you think brussels? >> look, terrorism is fundamentally about the spreading of fear. and in -- if you want to spread fear, you want to choose

symbolic targets. that's why the twin towers, the pentagon, these were so important in 9/11. brussels is the hub of europe. when we're talking about politics and trade in terms of the european union, when we're -- european commission, when we're talking about politics in terms of the european parliament, or lastly, when we're talking about the military and nato, all of these institutions headquartered in brussels. so if you want to take the war, the holy war, to the infidel in europe, brussels is an incredibly important target. >> if you want to uncover what's going on with the undercurrent of terror activity in belgium, why is it so hard to get information and intelligence from this small country? >> well, the fact is that the european bureaucrats tried to create a paradise with the treaty in the 1990s. they wanted to create a f

federative europe and took down all internal borders on the continent. the u.k. said, hey, we compare our national security. we're going keep our border controls. everybody else inside the e.u. dismantled their internal security procedures for checking your identity, if you went from france to spain or traveling across the continent. that's why terrorists are having a field day. if you cross the mediterranean or smother from the balkans into europe, you have freedom of movement. from portugal to belgium, you can go wherever you want. this man was hiding for four months in the heart of brussels. >> sure. no kidding. all right -- abdeslam you're talking about. >> right. >> stand by. we'll bring you back shortly. our own benjamin hall, the correspondent, has firsthand knowledge of previous raids and mistakes that were made. let's go to him now. good morning. >> reporter: yeah, good morning.

i was in belgium soon after the paris attacks and witnessing the raids. one raid after another as they desperately tried to find another connected to the paris attacks. four months later, the one guy they were looking for managed to get away until just a few days ago. what it felt like back then was that they were raiding every house they could find. they ended up release 90% of the people they found. the big question, what happened. what they were able to do, which was successful since then. the one raid they did get last tuesday, the house that abdeslam fled from, they found a large cache of weapons in that. many heavy weapons, a lot of ammunition. so the big question now is were they planning other attacks alongside the suicide attacks. were they planning to perhaps have multiple gunmen alongside the suicide attacks? we're not sure. what is clear is that the raids that have been going on for the past four months have not been as successful as anyone would have liked. again, who knows how many more people are still out there. >> you're one of the few reporters that teal was in syria

as it began to fall apart and terror activity began to flourish. you see a lot of these guys if belgium and women -- guys from belgium and women were going from europe to syria and getting training and able to get back. can you describe the process? is it as easy as it sounds? >> reporter: early on, it was that easy. i crossed that turkey/syria border several times. it was as simple as waiting for night cover, climbing a barbed wire fence, maybe crossing a river, and you were. in sometimes we would cross, and there would be countless others queueing up to go in. we still hear about them coming. more importantly, they are coming back. abdeslam returned from syria where he was recruited in 2014. some of the other attackers came back hidden as refugees. let's not forget the number last year. over a million refugees came to europe. we have to ask ourselves how many terrorists are hiding among them. >> what about security at the airports? i know you're in london.

i understand security is tight now. and more officers have been called in to the arpths there. the airports also in amsterdam, paris, frankfurt. >> around europe, security is being heightened at the moment. in england, we're at level severe which mean a threat is likely. we think that it's more a precaution than any specific threats. london has been planning, preparing for a trip, attack like this for some time. and since the paris attackers, they changed the attack they were planning for, it used to be lone wolf. people committed a crime. now they plan for these larger scale network attacks. up to ten possible attacks simultaneously. we're seeing two or three today. this is the threat, the networks. across london, there's a heightened alert and across europe. the priority is to prevent any other attacks today. after, that the questions will be asked, how did it happen, at went wrong? >> absolutely. we're looking at the aftermath in the city of brussels after

the twin attacks, coordinated attacks at the metro system and the airport, as well. a fellow who got off a flight in geneva ten minutes before the first airport blast told a french television after the explosion it was atrocious. the ceilings collapsed, he said there was blood everywhere. injured people, bags everywhere. he said we were walking in the debris, it was like a war zone. >> as you look at the pictures, there's no argument there. at 11 after the hour, reporting on this story where there's at least 13 dead and 35 wounded. let's bring in heather and dig deeper into salah abdeslam. you've been doing that and looking at the guy scooped occupy friday and we've been -- scooped up on friday and we've been watching since november. >> let's bring people up to speed and a reminder of who this guy is. abdeslam was plotting more attacks in brussels before the arrest took place on friday. you see the 26-year-old being

led out by police out of his brussels hiding spot where he had been holed up since november, the paris terror attacks there. he told investigators he abandoned a homicide vest at the last minute instead of blowing it up outside of the paris stadium that night in november. investigators say in recent months he had access to numerous weapons including ak-47s. he had a network of people around him including petty criminals, drug dealers, and family members. his arrest was a syed of relief for many -- a sigh of relief for many. there's been a heightened state of alert recently including what happened this morning. the belgium interior minister affirming the fears on friday. he was quoted as saying this, "after 18 months of dealing with this terrorist issue, i've learned that when the terrorists and weapons are in the same place, that's what we saw in forest. we are close to an attack.

i'm not saying it's evidence, but yes, there are indications." police are now looking for this man. there's another guy believed to have been involved. najim laachraoui. that's the problem, being able to cross the borders. >> they don't know if he's there. >> they don't know where he is, and that's a big part of the problem. wallid ferris was on earlier and said the attacks, 80 minutes apart. this day may not be over. investigators still concerned that something else could happen. >> the patience these guys show. they go to syria, train in 2013, come back in 2014 and wait for the go sign. >> some have not been able to get to syria, they say, great. head to europe, stay there, you might be of more assistance to us. >> experts saying everything is coordinated. look at 9/11. >> right. >> the other thing about this

fellow heather was profiling is he was able to hide on the streets of belgium for months. >> an urban area. not like he's hiding in a cave in afghanistan. he needed help. >> the unabomber -- one of the reasons for that is the police simply don't have good penetration into the community. we'll hear from a former ambassador later, mr. gutman, talking about high unemployment there. the other thing is belgium sends more fighters to isis than any other european nation. >> assimilation has been a real problem. i covered this in the netherlands years ago, ten-plus years ago. it was a problem then there. it's a problem in belgium now. folks have to wake up and realize that's an issue. >> as you know, one of the big challenges, stories in the world today is the future of the european union. and people are -- it's on a respirator especially as the u.k. considers who they will do.

joining us, k.t. mcfarland. she's done extensive work in the state department as well as national security analyst. this just adds to the confusion around the european union and some of the big things of dropping the borders, allowing the travel, and the collaboration is working for the terrorists in this case and against people who want to live their lives. >> you know, that's a really important point because the european union was formed on the assumption that people could travel freely from one country -- use didn't need a passport to go from belgium to france to germany. what has happened, according to the head of europol is that 5,000 european citizens have left europe, gone to syria, trained with isis, and come back. when they go in to syria, they get smuggled in. they don't go a passport that's stamped that says you've been fighting with isis. they come g back from the training. they go back into europe. there are 5,000 of them.

that's a guerrilla army. that's 5,000 who can act as sleepers, form sleeper cells, and it has totally overwhelmed the ability of the intelligence and police forces to really get out in front of it. that's why they're always playing catchup. and the concern i have for america is that once you have a european passport, you can come to the united states without getting a visa. if you're somebody who has a belgian passports, there's no stamp in your passport to say isis or syria. you present yourself at john f. kennedy airport from abroad. you don't have anything stopping you from getting into the united states. there's no visa requirement. we have a visa waiver system. that i think is -- it means that the terror threat that's in europe can spread. >> let's talk about what's going on there now. k.t., it's extraordinary to think that belgium has been on high alert for a while. since they took down this guy,

they've been at threat level four. nobody said, yep, he's in apartment 3b. one of the reasons is the police don't have good cooperation in that particular community there. >> yeah. and it's not the only community in europe that's like that. >> no. >> the fact -- there must be a large infrastructure that's supporting him. he's not one lone guy. he's got an infrastructure there, a lot of people looking the other way. there's a lot -- there must be sympathy within the community for what he's doing. this -- remember, this is the most wanted man in europe. his picture is everywhere. and yet he was -- another point, what is this going to do to the rest of europe? the brits have a vote. the british is a vote. a referendum on june 23rd, about when to leave the european union. do they want to leave this and travel without a passport? >> look at germany. look at germany. there's been a backlash that they have allowed all those

immigrants into that nation. now people of germany are going, what were you doing, german chancellor angela merkel? >> the fact that angela merkel has not changed the immigration policy in germany. they still have in effect come, please join us. the german development minister in her own cabinet has said, look, we anticipate we could see as many as eight million already in the pipeline of refugees and migrants heading to europe. now, if they're already overwhelmed now with the immigration in the migrant community, what's going to happen -- not to say that they're all terrorists. they're not. isis has said we are going to put terrorist and hide them within the migrant and refugee crowds. >> why all the hate and the evil associated with this? how do you fight this? >> you know, it's been a real problem in europe for decades. europe has said, we're going to be multicultural societies. you're going to have your own

religion, have your own way of life. your own language. you can have your own schools. you can -- you can really live as a separate unit within our nation's borders. and we will respect that. what that meant was that as migrants came to europe, they never assimilated. and with high unemployment, with imams, the hate preachers in mosques, they've allowed this to sort of fester. in the united states, we don't have that. that's why we don't have the kind of problems that europe has at least so far because we assimilate our people. if you come to america, speak english, go to the american schools. be on the football team. hang around at the mall. and so we have a very different attitude toward our migrants in the united states as they do in europe. and now europe, leaders of all european countries have come out and said, you know, that experiment, multiculturalism, it hasn't worked. in fact, just the opposite. >> that's what we're looking at now. the people of brussels, they must be saying to themselves, my

government can't keep me safe. we've been on high alert, sacrificing our freedom. i only passed through, i haven't spent significant time there. their freedom of speech is rival to americans. they relish this. so we give you this much time, this much freedom. and we still -- the height of rush hour in morning on a tuesday, we'relown up. they have to wonder, are they -- how vulnerable they are. and let me add to this, our embassy is telling americans to stay in place, do not come to the american embassy. stay where they are. but what is your response to that? and can you blame them for having that mindsets? >> it didn't happen at the secured perimeters on the way to the get. it happened where you get your ticket -- to gate. it happened where you get your ticket. you pull up to the curb, go inside, get your ticket. that's the most vulnerable part of any airport. there's no security in most airports in europe and most airports in the united states before you get to the airport.

if you're someone that says, where am i safe, not at a subway station, train station, an airport. that's exactly what the terrorists want. they have now -- you know, belgium is now on lockdown. other countries in europe are going to potentially be on lockdown, as well. nobody goes to work, nobody goes to school, nobody leaves home. that terrorizes a country and potentially entire continent. >> absolutely. what the terrorists want is people to be afraid. >> absolutely. >> today they won. k.t., stand by. let's bring in howard gutman, former u.s. ambassador to belgium, and former special assistant to the fbi director. he's in brussels today. ambassador -- [ siren ] i can hear the siren. tell us what you've seen this morning. >> i live on the corner of the parliament and 100 yards from the u.s.

[ inaudible ] the roads between france andble jerusalem have been closed. remember -- and belgium have been close the guy took the highway from paris to belgium after the paris terror attack. the confirmation of death is 21. >> steve, you mentioned the roadways between belgium and france have been shut down. the need for cooperation is paramount. so can this happen here in the united states as we try find out

if these attacks have subsided in brussels? >> our next guest has information on sleeper cells in our own country. michael solomon is a former intelligence officer to the u.s. state department and former nypd special investigator and best-selling author of "the conversion prophecy." thank you very much for being with us. the big question this morning -- >> good morning. >> good morning. when we're waking up and seeing this news, could this happen here? what are we doing to prevent it? >> absolutely. this is not the way i like to wake up in the morning. but the only way we can prevent it is we've got to increase our security. we've got people with attache cases and briefcases getting on subways all day long in new york, and nobody knows who they are. this happened in brussels outside of the security area, near the ticket area in the terminal. does that mean we have to re-evaluate security? maybe tsa has to move outside the terminal before people come in? we don't know that. these are things that have to be

looked at. you don't need sophisticated weapons to do this. >> sure. >> there are chemicals you can buy at supermarket and kill people all day long. >> absolutely. a supermarket is a soft target. the timing of the attack, certainly not a coincidence. it happened around 8:00 in the morning. that's when everybody is getting on the train, everybody is at the airport, they're going places, maximum kill zone. >> not only that, but you've got a lot of american businessmen there who are at the airport traveling back. the flights usually come back that time of the morning to the u.s. i don't know if -- you know, if they were trying to target american businessmen. but you know, time will tell. unfortunately, what they've done is they had two coordinated attacks in different areas. what they tried to do is, they'll have an attack in one area to get all the resources to that area, all the emergency response people, and leave the other part of the city

vulnerable to go to the subways. the problem is this morning i haven't heard of homeland security increasing our terror threat levels yet. i don't know what's going to be happening. we better wake up and wake up fast. >> yeah. i guess so. i mean, we do -- we need to get a rapid response from the nypd who has people stationed around the major cities around the world in order to study the attacks, prevent the attacks. they know the nypd is -- new york is still the number-one terror target. we have not had an official response yet coming out from our government. in the big picture, you mention subways. we have to look at the way we get into buses. we're already to a degree inconvenienced. we're going to be a situation where we try to run to a subway, going through metal detectors on a regular basis. is that what you're calling for? the infrastructure dollars needed to bolster up the sites will be something that many cities cannot afford. >> it's not that i'm calling for it, but i think we have to be

aware. people -- you know, again, we've heard this a thousand times. see something, say something. people have to be aware of their surrounding, be aware of what's going on around them. i'd rather see something and be wrong than not say something and be wrong. it's a crazy situation where you've got to keep your eyes and ears open. i mean, we joke about, see something, say something. first one that ever said that was paul revere when he screamed "the british are coming." >> he was right. >> hate to say it, but we've got to get our act together here. i'm sure -- >> in london, they have bolstered security. they said not over any specific thre threat, but they're doing it to n response to -- doing it in response to what happened in brussels. >> michael solomon, thank you for joining you. thank you, sir. if juror ju-- if you're jus waking up, in europe, homicide bombs ripping through the

brussels airport. that busy airport. an hour later, explosions rocking at least two metro stations near the e.u. headquarters. >> that's right. just 500 meters away from the european parliament. local news stations in brussels are reporting 13 people dead. that is expected to climb higher after explosion coming days after europe's most wanted man, suspected paris attacker salah abdeslam was arrested on friday. >> it makes you wonder why brussels, why is that city a hotbed for jihadists? let's bring in the founder and president of the american islamic forum for democracy, former u.s. navy lieutenant commander, and he is a practicing muslim. dr. jaser, welcome back. there's a lot of things going on in brussels. why do you think that continues to be a terror target and a hotbed for terrorism residence? >> our heart go out to the families. it is a repeats -- we're not

learning our lessons. west is not learning that if we don't treat the disease, the cancer will keep unroofing itself. and molenbeek where this person was -- unibelievable that this person was found a few houses away from where his family was. >> sure. >> there's no way he was hiding there unless an entire community was involved. let me use an analogy. if you think of the isis attackers as being those wearing the jerseys, carrying the arms in the militancy, there's a field of those not only wearing the military uniform but those wearing the jersey in the stadiums. unfortunately within the communities, concentrated jihadi central as the interior minister called it, "the guardian" called molenbeek jihadi central. you have imoms and others radicalizing them. anti-semitism, conspiracy theories. even when they went to get abdeslam this week, there were some throwing rocks at the

police, calling him a hero, et cetera. the bottom line is there is growing circles of influence outside of the terror cells. there are supporting networks. once they catch one, the other networks will become operationalized. before they get caught, they want to go out and on their way to heaven commit a radical act of terrorism so they can say they were operationally. is as jihadis. >> what do we do about that? we sit back and watch this happening? how do we go into these communities and fight what's happening there? >> this is where we need to thread the needle. on the one hand, demand that muslim communities come clean, be transparent, and begin to be part of solving the problem. not only the terror problem but say we are countering violent islamism, political islam, a separatist

teaching in the communities, about the countries they live in and prosper in. >> you know what, doctor, that makes perfect sense. why haven't they done it? >> because the communities around them have been so much about muslims being victims, about the so-called islamaphobia. they're ignoring the fact that in brussels you have 600,000 muslims and a population of 11 million, where you had one out of a thousand, 600 went to syria. 130 from molenbeek itself. yet, no problem, see no evil, hear no evil. nothing's happening. we don't have an issue. it's just a few one offs, they call them lone wolves. it's not lone wolves. this is an ideological separatism from the islamist way and western way of freedom. molenbeek is not only related to the paris attacks, there was an attack on a jewish museum in 2014. there was connection to "charlie

hebdo." i mean, how many lessons do we need until we realize that we need to put some fire under the feet of muslim communities to reform on this issue? >> they were on the highest alert, number four, whatever it is. they've been doing that for months and still were unable to stop. i'm wondering as you try to find out about abdeslam, and he is talking, that hive dentally backed out of the -- that he evidently backed out of the stadium hit and decided to do something else. i'm wondering what does that mean. i mean, i guess he had cold feet or had a conscience, who knows. one thing will lead to another. logic would tell you that maybe the pressure was so great because they knew he was talking, that that cell thought they had the hit now or -- or get arrested or give it up. >> we had a defector that reported to sky news. something like 5,000, 10,000 jihadis in europe that were on a

disc that he revealed to security services. abdeslam might have had cold feet or may have said, you know, let me see if i can go home, freely move between paris and belgium, and try coalesce another group to be a part of further acts of terror to help isis back inspirationally as it would be. i don't know if it was cold feet or wanting to continue the operations as al baghdadi called for. >> what went through your mind when you woke up and saw what was happening? >> i can't tell you enough how horrified i am, not only as an american but as a muslim that we are not treating this disease. i'm a physician. as a doctor, i know you can't cure symptoms unless the treat the disease. i'm reminded again that we're not treating the disease. we're just pushing it under the carpet. we are in denial. until our community in the west guns address the ideologies -- west begins to address the ideologies of imoms, of the

communities that are anti-western, feeding off of us in a parasitic way without assimilating ideas -- i woke up thinking to myself, god, not again. we're not -- weird n-- we're no dealing with the problem. we have to address it as one united community. >> it's got to come from the people in the muslim community first. stay right there. we're going bring in katherine herridge. earlier it was brought up we didn't know what our homeland security was doing and how it was reacting to what was happening in brussels. belgium experiencing another series of terror attacks. what can you tell us? >> reporter: good morning. we've confirmed that the homeland security secretary, jay johnson, has been briefed by the operations center, standard protocol in a situation like this. the process has begun looking at the intelligence over the last 96 hours to see if anything was missed and when it would change the threat posture in the united states. the official said there had been nothing specific or credible targeting the united states.

again, this information is being reassessed and recalibrated to see if there has been any change. one of the first orders of business today will be assessing this soft target scenario, what we have seen in brussels, and the public areas of the airports. there is no change at this point. and they didn't indicate to me that a change was anticipated. but this will be the first order of business. the soft targets at airports and the public areas where at least two devices exploded at that brussels airport. so a very fluid situation in washington. the homeland security secretary being briefed. a reassessment or recalibration of the intelligence in the last 96 hours to see if anything had been missed and when that would directly impact the security posture in the united states. >> sure. katherine, excellent point about the soft targets outside the tsa screening area. let's talk about the timing. for folks getting up now, 6:34

in new york city. there were coordinated terrorist bomb attacks at the brussels airport and the metro system, we're looking at some of the after math in downtown brussels. i believe that particular metro stop, about 500 yards from the european union headquarters. let's talk about the timing. there you see where the explosions took place. katherine, according to your sources, was the takedown of the guy who got away from the paris attack, abdeslam, was the timing coordinated? was the takedown the trigger of what just happened? >> based on my experience over a decade covering the area, when you pick up a high file operative, a couple of things happen. it's like taking a stick and poking it in the hornet's nest

because one of the things that happens is that those operatives who are associated with the individual begin to move. it's when terror suspects are on the move that they understand that they are the most vulnerable to pick up. they begin to communicate with one another. and that's another point that it would allow them to be identified. and if there are existing plots that are in process, often a pickup will cause that timetable to be accelerated. we don't know that to be the case, but that's a primary point of investigation this morning. >> katherine, just mentioned terrorists coordinating and communicating with each other. you know, there's been so much talk about the apple iphone encryption and stuff like that and whether or not in this particular paris attack they were talking, using -- i forget -- one of the playstation platforms or something like that. do we know how they're doing it? >> we know a lot more about how the paris attack went down.

and investigators will want to see to what extent there are parallels or connections to this group that launched the attack in brussels this morning. we were able to confirm details of a french police report that was first documented by "the new york times," and it shows that the operatives in paris last november almost exclusively used disposable cell phones, as well as sim cards to mask their communications. even more significantly, once they were inside the concert hall in paris, the bataclan, they began using the phones of the hostages to further confuse the police. some of the witnesses inside the concert hall reported that they say one of the terrorists open a laptop computer, and on the screen was what appeared to them to be a highly encrypted message. so that tells you that they have good operational security. that's a word in intelligence circles for trying to minimize their exposure so the plot can go forward. >> and -- >> reporter: go ahead. >> why does that happen? because they're basically

allowed to set up their own country, train people, set up classrooms and infrastructure, tax the system. we have sat on the outside for most part and thought tactically for the last four years on how is the right way to take these guys down. they're allowed to collaborate and form their own mini nation and export the terrorists to countries like belgium, america, london, and throughout europe. >> after the capture last friday, the french and the belgians said specifically in their news conferences that they felt that that attack wasnized in syria and iraq. so you do need to hold the land and space to have that level of coordination. what has my attention, back to the situation in brussels this morning, is when the signature of these devices at the airport will fit the same signature of the devices that we saw in paris. one of the other sort of headlines out of the french police report is that all the suicide vests bore the same

signature, indicating that they were made by the same bomb-maker, or there were a series of bombmakers who all had the same training. they used the explosive tatp, same formation with the shrapnel, and same adhesive tape and nine-volt battery to accelerate the detonation. if there are any similarity to these bombs in brussels, this speaks to a broader network and also a broader conspiracy. >> that is a great point. >> what are your sources in washington saying now? people are waking up and getting on a plane. you said that homeland security is looking over the intelligence to see if anything was missed. they're looking over what's happening in the united states right now. but what going forward today, what happens next? >> i don't want to get too far over the tip of my skis here, but what we do know for certain

is that the homeland security secretary has been briefed by their operations center. that is sort of the first point of business in a situation like this. they are looking to see what was missed in the last 96 hours to change the view on a direct and specific threat to the country and when security would have to be altered. these are not things that happen with the snap of a finger. it takes a certain amount of process. at the airports, i was told a particular focus will be the soft targets or public areas of the airport this morning. the check -- >> we want you to listen to the voices of the people airport this morning when the bombs went off at 8:00 a.m. in brussels.

>> i put my suitcase and glass over me. >> i walked through a mess, a load of stuff, glass, smoke, water dripping from the ceiling, had to walk through puddles, and we were evacuated. >> and 20 minutes before the top of the hour. we're continuing to give you the firsthand account to what's going on. also the devastating images of the attacks are flooding in through social media, showing us the minute-by-minute accounts from the people that are living it. >> abbey huntsman is following it all and is here with us on the curvy coach. good morning. >> good morning. people left their homes this morning not knowing their lives would be changed forever. and the horrifying events this morning unfolding at the airport and metro station also playing out on line as soon as the first explosions went off. this is one of the first videos that was posted from the airport. take a look at this. it shows the entire front wall of glass shattered. travelers running for their sleeves out of the -- running for their lives out of the

building. this video shot from a nearby parking garage. inside closer to where the blast hit, photos of people injured, covered in blood and dust. one victim's clothes blown completely off by the force of the blast. another video from inside the terminal taken by an american and posted to facebook showing ceiling tiles and a floor of debris. basically everywhere. many travelers who were stuck outside on the tarmac being temporarily corralled into an airport hangar. the entire airport completely locked down at the moment. they've been there basically all morning. and no word on how long they will have to stay there today. and not long after the airport blast, we started seeing images from the explosions at the metro stations. people posting videos of passengers walking on the tracks in a smoke-filled underground tunnel. then this photo showing the mangled rail car at one of the metro stations. the images from the tragic scenes continue to pour in. people continue to post them. we'll sty it and bring you more

-- stay on it and bring you more as we get it. these lives changed forever. >> think about the terror in those people's hearts and minds when they were on the subway. you look at the pictures, when you're underground, there's nowhere to go. >> just smoke and dark. speaking of social media, facebook has activated a safety check for users after the brussels blast going forward. the same thing they did in the wake of the paris attacks. >> we talked to him a few minutes and he was in a bad location. now he's in a better location, the eye of the storm in brussels. howard gutman, former u.s. ambassador to belgium and former assistant to the fbi director. he's on the cell phone in brussels. where are you at this moment, and where were you when the blast began to happen? >> the bad location is brussels because this is textbook of what not to happen in an emergency.

the phone lines are jammed so you couldn't get phone signals. when it occurred, i was in our home dead center of brussels, near the belgian parliament. immediately there were emergency vehicles going down the one-way streets the wrong way. the military came to the parliament. the undercover officers -- i know them because they guarded me for four years. they emerged from the streets with uszes. and emergency -- uuzis. and emergency vehicles on the streets. his to leave because there's no phone reception. every traffic light is on red. there's nothing but gridlock and chaos getting out, as well. they're doing the best they can as the first responders to the

scene. but there's never been a plan in brussels about how to keep the phones going and traffic going to evacuate the people. >> i understand you are talking on the phone. your wife is driving the car. we're looking at what looks like in certain blocks a mass exodus. are people terrified there? are they trying to get out of town, out of downtown? do they feel there's another shoe to drop? >> there are people heading out. we're on the road that's totally blocked. they've shut all the tunnels. lights are on red. we are headed without traffic lights and tunnels closed. i think people are leaving -- first of all, there would be no reason to stay. second of all, it was reminiscent to me of when i was in my office in downtown washington, and they announced there was a plane headed toward the white house. the kids got picked up from school -- you try figure out how

to get out of downtown washington. that's what downtown brussels is like. >> describe brussels for us, for those of us who haven't been there. what is the culture like, the religion, the people like? can you describe what the community is like there? >> yeah. so americans have no idea. brussels is a fabulous city normally. it is -- there was the international -- there was a 2015 quality of life cities in the world. brussels came out 21st. the highest american city was san francisco at 28 and boston at 34. it is what you would associate with sort of the downtown brussels -- sort of a lot like downtown washington. cafes. >> sure. you've been on our program talking about the particular neighborhood where they picked up the salah abdeslam. he was wanted in the paris terror attack. and you described that

neighborhood as pretty much closed off to the cops. there's unbelievably high unemployment. that's why so many guys turn to isis. >> right. what basically happened is that is sort of -- what people here would call a muslim ghetto. i can tell you compared to some of the more difficult neighborhoods in the u.s., northeast washington or parts of new york city, molenbeek functions perfectly well. there's a lot of second and third generation turks and moroccans. and youth unemployment is high in those areas. they originally went to fight assad, when he used chemical weapons on sunnis. there you can't tell the good sunnis from the bad sunnis. you've probably got 100 radicalized people in molenbeek. if you can ask me, today is disc. molenbeek would be kalishnakovs at the airport.

this, i suspect, a followyon that has international planning, that came to brussels because of the attention it got after paris. i don't think this will come from molenbeek. the security was all over molenbeek. i have a feeling this was planned and much more sophisticated to be at the airport and at the e.u. train stations. ma molenbeek, they would take guns and start shooting. this is a much more coordinated as a hallmark. >> howard gutman with us from belgium. he's trying to get out of belgium to a degree after the series of attacks at the metro station and airport. and i imagine, as you leave, people looking to leave. also authorities, i would hope, are looking to find out any surviving attackers. some of them seem to have had suicide vests, so they're dead. the ones that didn't, the planners, the plotters that took us months to find after france, do you sense that there's a

security coordination that would put those lights on red? and maybe start screening people at tunnels? >> yeah, but i suspect this right now isn't looking for people. this is fundamental security. so i don't think this is the law enforcement response. those are guys in suits who normally would accompany the u.s. ambassador or to accompany a visiting dignitary. they have suits with guns in their back. those guys are standing on the corner where live and near the parliament with uzis prominently displayed. there's a lot of security show of force with uzis all over downtown brussels. by the way, i am not leavingble jerusalem, i'm just trying to head out to keep a better phone signal for you guys. i would never abandon brussels. >> thank you. right. i apologize. i -- i don't want to assume that. i just know you were heading away from the attack zone. you are able to update us like nobody else. >> brian, let's go to a press conference now in the heart of

brussels. they're talking about what has happened over the last couple of hours, coordinated terrorist attacks. here's >> the prime minister charles michel is saying to look after the wounded and the injured and investigators are trying to figure out how this happened. they have no information about who is behind today's attacks. he says that brussels is being hit by two blind, violent, cowardly attacks that many people are dead, many seriously injured in these attacks. he said this was a day that they did fear could come and indeed it has come to pass. and we know that obviously brussels is effectively locked down at the moment.

brussels airport pictures you can see on the right in lockdown since the attacks at 7:00 u.k. time this morning. two attacks, we know from the belgian prosecutors they know there's one suicide bomber and we know that ten people have been killed in the attack at the airport. and an hour later by an attack on the metro station, in the heart of brussels. let's go back to that press conference. >> -- to deal with the families of the victims. to take the wounded to the hospitals and to deal with the security situation. it's very sensitive. we don't have any further information about that.

[ inaudible question ] >> the terror level has been heightened to level four. and that has been in place for several months now. [ speaking a foreign language ]

[ speaking a foreign language ] >> we don't have any information about that at the moment. the situation is very serious. our priorities is to focus on the victims -- the families of the victims. that's our priority. for the rest, the investigator is ongoing. and we will come back to that as soon as we can. [ speaking a foreign language ] >> all right.

we're listening to the press conference. we'll bring you the highlights at the top of the hour, seven minutes away. what they did reveal was belgium has been ratcheted up to threat level four, it's been on the highest level alert ever since the arrest of the paris suspect on friday, salah abdeslam. what they just said, this is what we had feared would happen. it is a dark moment for our nation. also a federal prosecutor has confirmed that at least one of the explosions at the airport was a suicide bomber. >> on the phone with us before the press conference was howard gutman, the former ambassador to belgium. we're going to bring him back to talk about what's happening there in belgium. now, ambassador, you heard this press conference, you heard them saying that the terror alert was heightened to the level four, they feared this day could come. what are your folks and your intelligence on the ground

saying? did anyone tip you off to this and have you gotten any information, because you were talking about the security guards that had protected you when you were the ambassador, that they were walking around with uzis. did they say anything to you? >> right, so as of last night, it was -- the situation was normal. but you've got to remember, it's the new normal. so on my block, there are always four uzi guards in front of the american ambassador's residence which is a hundred yards to my left and there are several uzi guards to the left normally. so this took them blind. but what they did is they quickly reacted. by the time -- i heard about -- i guess you heard sirens going by my house. two army trucks were on the corner. the force that -- there's 80 dozen, they're the people who guard visiting dignitaries, four of them will be -- three of them will stay with the american

ambassador of nato, the ambassad ambassadors. so anybody from the military to the security force was relatively quickly deployed to downtown belgium. now, i'm on the block with the parliament. but -- they normally had people just walking around and did for hours and then they asked people to move. and then sorted it out. >> howard, can i ask you too the logistics of this. two blasts, one at the airport, one is at the train station. how close are they together? how dense are the crowds usually at this hour? >> right. so at the airport, that is where you kind of -- you know, you arrive and you check in. it's the basic check-in point. so that will be international people leaving, coming, and it would be very crowded.

you hear different reports but i heard there were explosive strikes at several different belgium metro lines, subway lines. >> two different blasts at schuman and maelbeek stations, howard. >> right. that is they had coordinated teams time wise at different locations to send messages. i can tell you if this were the regular people from molenbeek, they would not be picking schuman. schuman is the e.u. if you were an international person thinking of where the sites are in the world to send a message, you'd pick schuman. as we ahead -- we're driving through molenbeek and it's quiet on the streets of molenbeek. schuman is -- you know, is about a mile and half away and that is the home of the e.u.

and that could be where sitting somebody -- okay, the world is looking at brussels, we'll strike there. you want to pick key targets. it's the difference between an attack in the neighborhood in the bronx and going to the heart of times square or washington. this would be at the capital. >> howard, ambassador, if i wanted to get on a train at molenbeek or schuman, what kind of security would i have to go through? >> well, normally, it's just the metro. there would be none. >> right. >> so it is rush hour. you know, normal metro system. the same thing you go through at the metro in d.c. or the subway in new york. it would be normal. because right now all the trains are closed. all the metros are closed. the train stations are closed. the roads are not doing well. >> right. >> and the phone signals i'm amazed we have stayed because i keep getting blasts that the phone lines are down. this is the wonders of skype,

because that's the only way i could get through. >> ambassador, when we were here in new york during 9/11, i actually wasn't living here at the time but i had friends living here. i was trying to call them to make sure they're okay and safe. i'm sure you're getting a lot of calls this morning. tell us a little bit about that from the personal level. >> so, you know, i have had e-mails and facebook posts but i quickly posted that it's easier to get me by listening to fox than it will by getting me. but there's a facebook security system. so you're able now -- you've got a blast on your phone saying, are you safe, please respond. then you click in that you're safe. but the problem is you have to -- you have a notation and pop-up when everyone says they're safe. so i can tell you lots of people are safe, but they keep getting the pop-up saying i'm safe. i think facebook needs to fine-tune it a little bit. >> howard gutman, stick right there. we appreciate the insight as you scrambled to get us your sound, and your signal, so we

understand what's going on in belgium where they have been hit by a series of terror attacks which we're trying to unwind at this hour. >> it's now 7:00 in new york city. you're watching a special edition of "fox & friends." >> a deadly day in belgium in morning. top officials saying explosions that ripped through the brussels airport and at least two metro stations were terrorist attacks. at least 13 people have been killed. more critically injured at this point. terrified passengers as you can see running for lives out of that terminal. you can see the glass in the background broken. witnesses say the first blast went off near the american airlines terminal. >> yeah, all flights are cancelled. several confirmed dead and injured at the metro blast at

molenbeek and schuman stations. >> apparently there were two blasts at the metro stops. people who had been on the cars thought they heard the explosion at the front of the car which is curious. in fact, we had just learned that in one of the blownout metro cars at least ten people were killed. >> look at this picture. this looks like a guy who is walking underground, carrying flowers, wearing a nike sweatshirt. people trying to get to work, maybe taking flowers to a loved one at the hospital, who knows, but their lives are totally turned up side down. this comes day after salah abdeslam was arrested in the molenbeek area. france and britain ramping up security at all the transportation hubs. >> meanwhile, we have a witness at the zaventem airport.

tah, tell us what happened at 8:00 this morning there in brussels at the airport. >> yes. thanks for having me. so i got at the airport around 7:30 this morning coming from new york. jfk to brussels headed to liberia. and immediately after i passed through security we saw some -- you know, shallow windows, broken glasses. what looked like -- seemed like a construction area because we didn't know what was happening until we saw officers and other security personnel who had gone and tried to tell us to move to the exit area, but we didn't know it was a bomb explosion. >> how long -- tah, how long was that after the explosion at that particular terminal? >> i'm not -- i'm not sure, because at that point in time, you know, i just passed the

security. and so we didn't know what was happening. it was -- i think it was right around when it happened or maybe about two minutes after it happened. >> all right. so we understand you hear -- >> those are ceiling tiles by the way. >> before we're seeing your pictures from what you experienced in the morning, what exactly did you hear and what were people able to communicate to you? >> i didn't hear any blast, but what i did see it was shattered windows. what i did see, people running. currently, they have not communicated anything to us internally here aside this being a terror related event. we are all secluded right now the mechanic area where -- so they're giving blankets to people, food and water. as much as they can. >> okay, it sounds like you'll spend the night there in brussels because they have

closed the airport. thank you very much. let's go to washington, d.c. catherine herridge joins us. i just saw a news flash that in france, they have deployed 1,600 extra police officers on the streets of paris. they could be getting ready for something. what are we doing? >> reporter: well, we have been able to confirm this morning that the homeland security secretary has been briefed by the of races center and they a -- operations center and they're re-evaluating the intelligence to see if there's any change to the threat picture here in the united states. right now, we are at that level that was announced earlier this year with the new homeland security advisory system. this is a relatively high level of threat, though nothing specific or credible directed at the united states. within the last hour, the u.s. embassy in belgium has released this statement, two american

citizens in that area, telling them to shelter in place and to avoid public transportation. it also reports multiple explosive devices may still be in play here. so this is sort of code for the threat and the violence may not be over at this point. in addition to re-evaluating the intelligence in this country, they are re-evaluating the public area, but there's been no determination on whether there will be a change to the security at airports in this country. again, it's very early stages. and there's a process that everyone has to go through and that mechanism has kicked into play this morning and we'll hope to have some statement from homeland security or the tsa with we understand a couple of things there, the press conference that was roughly

translated. one of the attackers was a suicide bomber. number two, i thought it was significant that the prime minister said we feared this day would come and it has come to pass. what is the message to the people of brussels and of europe? >> well, what this really -- this extremely unfortunate attack and episode this morning underscores the nature in which the terrorism threat has changed, not just overseas in europe but also for the united states. with a group such as isis or al qaeda because no one has claimed responsibility, these groups now have a safe haven to operate from and it's that kind of space that allows them to do training and also to give their operatives good trade craft in effect. so that they can stay under the radar. we were reporting last hour on your show that a french police report had concluded that the attackers last november of which

salah abdeslam was one of th ththem had been taught to use only disposable phones and disposable sim cards as a way to mask their communications. so when you take that type of trade craft and couple that with encryption, you leave the law enforcement activities blind to the activities of the groups. so they know the threat level is high. they don't know how specific it is and how credible it is. and again, this is has been the natural evolution of what al qaeda and associated groups have been aiming for post 9/11. what i would describe as a relatively low tech, but high impact attack and specifically targeting aviation. aviation remains one of the primary targets for these groups because they understand the

psychological impact and they also understand the economic impact of a successful strike as we saw today. especially on these transportation systems. >> i wonder if the president is going to stay in cuba and watch the baseball game. have you heard anything from the white house? >> i don't think we have had any response from the white house at this point. but we have confirmed that the homeland security secretary is up and engaged and they're making assessments as to whether the security posture would be altered in this country based on the credible and specific threat. >> well, as you look at what we know so far and as ainsley mentioned they have suggested that one of the blasts at the airport was a suicide bomber. >> right. >> a suicide attacker. so you have a bomb there. also, apparently there were shots fired so you've got shots, people with guns and bombs as well, which is also the

hallmarks of the paris attack. and just like in paris as well, shouting in arabic before the blast. so it all sounds like a movie we have seen before. >> it does fit the same pattern as what we saw in paris. the thing that has my attention and it will also have the attention of the investigators, the extent to which these devices have the same signature as the suicide bomb vests. >> what does that mean? >> what that means is that everyone who is trained to make a bomb is given training that has a certain style or a technique. so when they talk about the signature of a bomb maker, it would be for example the way that the detonator is fashioned. the type of materials that are used. one of the conclusions of the french police in paris is that the suicide vests were made by

the same person or by people who had the same training. because they all relied upon a nine volt battery to accelerate the detonation. they used the same kind of adhesive tape to hold the detonator together. and they also used tatp, this is a type of explosive that's highly unstable and you need to have some experience with to handle without having an accident and losing your hands. so that's what they mean by signature. >> okay. >> that goes a along with what the ambassador was saying. if you look at the metro stops of this where this was happening, happening at the schuman stop, home to the e.u. td he doesn't think someone that came from one of the cells in the molenbeek neighborhood, that i sophistica >> and more symbolic. >> all right, we'll get back to you in a little bit. alex rossie is a reporter for sky news, he saw everything unfold. let's listen to him right now. >> reporter: well, we were checking in this morning to get

our flight. we had our boarding passes. we had gone through security. i put my boarding pass there, booked on the flights to tel aviv. we had gone through security, our main bags. checked into the main halls, hand luggage screens. we had gone into the area, i was buying chocolates for my children for easter. and then we heard two very loud explosions. we didn't just hear them though. we felt the walls around us shake. we could smell whatever the explosive device was. there was smoke coming through into the area. we were in very -- it was very hard to say how close we were to it. it felt quite close. but the blast could have been redirected by the shake of the building. not quite clear how close we were to it. then lots of distressed people, panicked people. some of them finding cover, which at that point we heard another explosion.

we didn't know the cause of the explosion, but my instinct was it was a terrorist attack. it couldn't have been anything else but an explosion caused by a bomb. we saw one woman covered in blood coming down her face. lots of people crying. other people trying to call their loved ones. lots of confusion. the authorities of course also you forget this, they're caught up in this. they don't know what's going on. they're frightened. they don't know what to respond -- there's no information coming to them as to what to do or what is happening. >> so there you go. mr. rossie, who was actually at the airport. >> not at the airport, didn't know how close it was. he didn't know if it was the shape of the building, but it sounded like it was right next to where i was standing. >> that happened at 8:00 at the airport in brussels and then 79

minutes later there were strikes at of two the metro stops downtown, at the schuman and molenbeek station. we have heard that the blast at the airport was the result of a suicide bomber and the prime minister of belgium said dozens have been killed and wounded as well. >> you're not even sure entirely this is over. >> you don't know. >>f there are waves -- and there are levels of these attacks, the first one seemed to have happened at the airport and the second at the metro station. it began with shots fired, and then an explosion. at least one was a suicide bomber. >> some are saying this could be a diversion for a bigger threat. like in paris. the diversion was at the soccer stadium. >> pull resources to one part of town and then strike another part. benjamin hall in europe, in london this morning has been looking at the chatter online

and he had developments. tell us about it. >> a lot of chatter in the aftermath as you'd expect, but we have been looking at the isis related accounts and they are really going hot at the moment. using the #brussels on fire. you will remember after the paris attacks it was paris on fire. there has not been an official claim of responsibility from isis themselves. but then that is normal. you're saying could there be other attacks? isis would not take responsibility until the operation was over or until the operatives if there were some had escaped. thousands of french police have moved to the french/belgium border to lock that down essentially is to see if anyone is trying to escape at the moment. you will remember salah abdeslam was able to escape after the paris attacks and there's one name they'll be hunting for in particular. najim laachraoui, his dna was found both on the explosive vest used in paris and also in an apartment raided last week. he is highlyct as a

ringleader, as someone who may have made these explosives as well. so they're looking for him and possible attackers but the belgian prime minister is saying we have no real info at the moment. their priority is to look after the wounded after this quite blind, cowardly act. again it follows all the hallmarks of paris, and if you were to go further, you would say there's a likelihood of other attacks out there. we have been talking all day whether or not there was a response to salah abdeslam's arrest. laachraoui was connected, he was with him just last week in the apartment where there were guns found, heavy weapons found, so did he move forward the timetable for those attacks? we just don't know. but around europe right now, including here in the u.k., the threat level has risen where it's severe in the u.k. we have extra police at the main transport links. very impossible with some of our correspondents trying to get to brussels now, finding it difficult because they're trying to shut it down, prevent anyone

else escaping or anyone else coming in. >> benjamin, quick thing on najim laachraoui, he's got his finger prints on everything. were they looking for him anyway? >> they had him under another name all the time. he is apparently using multiple identities and we do know he travelled around europe in the months leading up to the paris attacks. he have clearly heavily involved in those. only a few days ago after salah abdeslam was arrested did they find his real name. this guy is mysterious, he was in syria back in 2013 as was salah abdeslam. we don't know where he is now, but he's clearly a bomb maker. he made those paris explosions and police will be desperately trying to find him. >> another guy in his 20s. endlessly looking for something and he found terror. meanwhile, 16 minutes after

the hour. let's dig deeper into salah abdeslam. joining us again is heather nauert. he was arrested on friday. but he was talking right away. >> not only was he talking right away which some of the experts we have been talking to said maybe that was a trigger for this attack. all of this goes back of course to the paris attacks where he was a logistics person, helping the paris attackers. his brother if you recall was one of the homicide bombers who blew himself up outside of the stadium. i believe it was. so that brother went away. he was supposed to blow himself up as well, apparently he chickened out or something. then fled to belgium, his home country, including his family members had been keeping him safe. >> he was arrested four doors down from his parent's house. >> exactly. there was a raid that took place about a week ago and we may be taking a look at this on -- >> this is on friday.

>> but a week prior to that, there was another raid that police thought that he was holed up. they found -- they thought it would be an empty apartment actually. they got there, they find an isis flag, they found ammunition and they found his fingerprints. of course, some of this information is fluid, so this is just breaking news. so they started to track him with the cell phone somehow. we don't know the details behind that, but that's what helped to lead them to him. and they're still looking for people at this hour. >> sure. one of the way that the paris attackers communicate they have the burner phones. don't teach an old dog new tricks, he probably had some burner phones he was using, but they were able to figure out which one to track. >> well, one of the things i wanted to mention, the interior minister from europe said they thought something was going to happen. there had been a continued problem with assimilation in that country. that country has sent more terrorists to syria than any

other. i believe it's 130 from that molenbeek neighborhood alone have been sent down there. >> it's very hard to determine where these sleeper cells are in these communities because they protect one another. also this is a thought process. you mentioned they found the isis flag, it's a religion so it's hard for certain individuals, for you to get inside their minds and to change their thought process. because they believe they are right and everyone else is wrong. >> radical islam. >> exactly. >> one other thing i want to mention to you that we haven't covered just yet, the associated press recorded there was a attack outside the police station and there were deaths there. the details -- >> in brussels? >> yes. in the neighborhood called maelbeek, not to be confused with molenbeek. this is another neighborhood. the police individual who spoke said, quote, there are victims. this information came out within the last 30 minutes or so. >> well, that was maelbeek is

one of the metro stops. there's schuman which is where the e.u. parliament -- >> this was described as a police station. again, all breaking news coming in. it could have been -- this could be something different though, steve, so we'll keep an eye on it. >> there's somebody else that police are looking for at this hour, somebody closely associated with the arrest on friday. >> yeah, his name is najim laachraoui, he travelled to hungary with abdeslam before the paris attacks. it's not clear when he returned to europe or exactly why. but that's one person that officials are looking for. belgian officials had ramped up the security along the borders. the border between france and belgium has been closed. that hasn't happened since the paris attacks. just think about that. from the perspective of a nation. like the united states closing down its borders, just try to --

you know, think about what the -- >> we understand the frustration of the people in europe is very similar to the people here. everyone has a big heart, wants to help everybody but you don't want to open yourself up to being a victim. you have to know that your government is screening and protecting the best they can. how can the people of belgium and germany and maybe even the u.s. feel good that the government has their back. when you have the people of belgium on high alert and they're the victim of a multipronged attack. >> the assimilation is -- they have the generous social programs. morocco, you name it, they come in there and the government can't sustain having all the people on the dole so to speak. a huge issue in the netherlands. this is another thing as well. >> absolutely. all right. great work. thank you very much. meanwhile, let's monitor sky news. we saw their correspondent alex

rossie who is actually inside the airport at the time of the blast. let's monitor their on-air right now. >> that's also the case. military walking around inside there are a number of police armed as well. security is very tight. what you would expect at any modern airport in the western country. this is a country that is on major alert since obviously the paris attacks. the origin, if you like, about that operation was born in brussels in the area of molenbeek. it's quite clear that belgium has a home grown jihadi program and the security is tight. inner in western countries it's very tight at the moment because there's an ongoing terrorist threat. so security is pretty visible everywhere.

>> well, these are the latest pictures coming in -- from the airport in brussels. >> there's the breaking news covered by sky news as we dip into our sister station. >> that was alex rossie on the phone. >> he said he was buying easter candy in the duty free store and the explosion went off. >> we snuck in our senior judicial analyst, judge napolitano to talk about where we go from there. >> here's what i think is a serious defect this this system. abdeslam was captured over the weekend. belgian and french magistrates have been interrow gaiting him and -- interrogating him and revealing what he's saying. that's a dog whistle to the other plotters as yet unarrested in belgium. i believe from people we have spoken to already that this explosion is a diversion to

allow those people to escape. if american veer have interrogas had revealed what they learned they'd be fired at best and prosecuted for obstruction of justice. >> you think this is a diversion to get this cell back to syria or safety? >> somewhere out of brussels. look, when they start interrogating this guy, as a result, we revealed he was one of the plotters, he chickened out he didn't want to kill himself. then they revealed that he told them he was going to sue them for revealing what he told them. that's the level of detail they released to the public. all of this was a signal to these people in brussels who perpetrated these acts this morning. >> so who's to blame for this? >> prosecute -- well, they're

not prosecutors. they're magistrates, a cross between a judge and the prosecutor. it's the initial level after arrest and at the very beginning of the prosecution process. these are the people who in america it would be the fbi agents, who are gathering information, they should be passing this on to their superiors in law enforcement. not the press and not to the public because this guy is using them to pass information on to his confederates knowing they're revealing what he wants them to reveal. >> sure. i think that's a great headline, but you have to admit they would do the same thing in the united states. this nation has been -- brussels -- >> no no no no. >> hold on, listen to this. belgium has been at a stage four alert for a while. >> right. >> everybody is terrorized. so for them to come out in the news and say, look, we've got guy and he's talking, i think they would do that in the united states as well. just to calm people down. >> well, if they would, they would be making a profound error in judgment because it can serve as a signal.

highly unusual, highly unusual for the fbi to reveal what it's learning as it's learning it. >> but after 9/11 we heard drips and drabs of the investigation as it was going on. >> you're right about that. >> this is their 9/11. >> yes. >> the borders are closed now, so that the individuals who might be affiliated with the terrorists that are involved with terrorists they can't get out? >> they're probably gone already. i'm not saying they shouldn't close the border, there may be others trying to pass. they want to get down to syria, they want to go to a place where they can move freely without fear, without fear out government. >>hey can go anywhere in europe with their passports. >> this is another problem. >> e.u. >> it's clear that great britain is going to get out of the e.u. >> david cameron is recommending they don't leave. >> well, he's going to stay because his premiership depends on its. they failed to provide the

protection, look at how this can fester and grow in belgium. inconceivable this can fester and grow in new york city without the police and the intelligence services knowing about it. >> judge, the push back to that, more than ever, you need the european countries to cooperate, not put up walls between them. >> there you go. they have closed the border between brussels and france. that would be the moral equivalent of closing new york city and washington, d.c. >> that's how this guy, salah abdeslam, got from paris into brussels. he got in a car and drove over there. >> nobody stopped him. >> judge, don't go far. we want to bring in walid phares who testified on how isis was infiltrating and he's been named as an adviser to donald trump. we haven't heard from you in

about 45 minutes. as we're hearing more and more details about the metro station attack and the airport attack, what have you concluded? >> what i concluded after hearing the judge, it makes sense. it makes sense in the interrogation of abdeslam may have revealed a lot of information. i'm not sure if they're doing it for the others to flee belgium, but certainly they knew they were coming at them. so the networks -- possibly the network may have decided to do it, so they said let's go ahead and do it. that's number one. number two, the catastrophe of the jihadi networks to paralyze half of the continent. i mean, the railway between spain and amsterdam are paralyzed now. the metro station is now paralyzed. the airliners -- i mean all the skies of europe are paralyzed because of that action. that's telling us for here in the united states. >> it was mentioned yesterday that you were part of one of

donald trump's advisers. sit still for a moment, because we have republican presidential candidate donald trump on the phone with us right now. mr. trump, good morning. your reaction to what happened this morning early in belgium? >> well, i think it's absolutely horrible. you're talking to a great man in walid, he knows this stuff better than just about anybody i can think of. and you have the right man and i will tell you i have been talking about this for a long time. and look at brussels, brussels was a beautiful city, a beautiful place with zero crime. and now it's a disaster city. it's a total disaster. >> mr. trump -- sorry go ahead. >> we have to be very careful in the united states, we have to be very, very vig lantd -- vigilant as to who we allow into this country. >> if you do become president and we're in a situation like this, what would you do to protect america? >> well, again, i think i said

it. i would close up our borders to people, until we figure out what's going on. look at brussels, look at paris, look at so many cities that were great cities. paris is almost as bad if you look at -- paris is no longer the beautiful city. paris has lot of problems in it. all you have to do is speak to the people that live there and look at other places where the same thing has happened. they're in fear. the city is in fear. we have to be smart in the united states. and when people come in, i mean, we're taking in -- we're taking in people without real documentation. we don't know where they're coming from. we don't know what they're -- you know, we don't know where they're from, who they are. you look at them and look at them from any standpoint, they could be isis, they could be isis related. and, you know, we just don't learn. we don't learn. i mean, brussels is an amazing example. brussels was absolutely a crime free city, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. and now you look at it, it's a disaster. >> but we're talking with donald trump, obviously.

donald, you know, we just talked to walid phares and talked to dr. zuhdi jasser. the key is they're muslims. the key is getting the muslim community to trust us. how to trust us and the government more than they do maybe the people in their own community. how do you do that? >> well, you need to have -- i mean, you have on the vigilant as to who you have, where they're coming from. you have to look at people and look at their backgrounds so closely. but this is a story that jus seems to be more and more happening. you're going to see things happening in paris. you see what's happening in london and other cities and it's really not very pretty to watch. you know, if you take a look at the migration and you go up to germany, i have people and friends that live in germany. they say what's going on up there they have never seen it happened in their lives. this woman allowed millions of

people and the assimilation is very, very difficult and in some cases impossible. >> sure. and in many cases, i know you have seen the reports, mr. trump, where as isis has rolled over different communities and cities and towns in syria, you know, they knock over the courthouse, they take the pass port machine and take the documents. and they just print up fake passports for the people who need them or people who got the money. >> right. they're coming into our country. and they're coming into our country too. and we don't -- we have no idea what's happening. our government has no idea what's happening, but they're coming in by the thousands. and just watch what happens. i'm a pretty good prognosticator. watch what happens over the year, i want won't be pretty. >> it was a few days ago, a month ago in "the new york times" called you a racist because you said brussels is -- and belgium is turning into the hell hole if i can paraphrase.

what do you say about that then and now? >> well, "the new york times" has no clue as to what's going on in the real world. they have no clue. it's a failing newspaper. they don't know what they're doing. it will be closed -- unless somebody buys it a as a trophy and loses a fortune. it's ridiculous. they blew a newspaper out of the woods. they went into other businesses, loss billions of dollars and we're supposed to sit back and listen to "the new york times." the fact is that we have a situation worldwide, a situation that is out of control and just all i do -- i'm looking at your pictures now on the show, it's disgraceful. and it's what it is. i have been saying it for a long time. >> donald, donald trump, i don't think i did a good job describing it to. what do you think of "the new york times," they took you to task about your assessment of brussels. were you right? >> oh, of course i'm right. i mean, just turn on the television and obviously look at "fox & friends," you know?

of course. you take look at it. brussels is a disaster. brussels is an armed camp. it's an armed camp. if you went into brussels 20 years ago, it was like a magical city. >> right. >> it was a magical city and now you look at it, it's an armed camp. i'm just looking at your pictures on television right now, it's horrible. >> and what about -- in particular for instance, the and they where they picked -- the neighborhood where they picked up the salah abdeslam, one of the guys in the paris attack, in the muslim community police have no penetration in that neighborhood and no real -- a lot of people don't have a real connection to the police and there's high unemployment so that explains that. >> police are afraid to into the neighborhood and he was being protected by others in the neighborhood. here's one of the paris leaders and killers and he's being protected by people in the city itself. it's ridiculous. >> he was four doors down from his parents. >> right. the whole thing is crazy. and it's not going to change.

it's not going to get better. only going to get worse. >> i want to ask you too, because you're a business man, about the markets because i know the markets are down. brussels is a hot bed for international business. what happens no -- now going forward from the business perspective? >> i think this whole thing will get worse as time goes by. it's being, you know, perpetrated all over the place now. brussels is in very bad shape, but many cities will be this way. you know, with what's taking place. it's really the policies of people that don't know what they're doing. it's people that don't know -- they see what's happening and yet they allow it to continue to happen. >> yeah. mr. trump, let me ask you about this. as we look at the images we know that once you get through the security zone at the airports, you know, that the security is high. however, these explosions at the airport apparently took place outside the security perimeter. the explosions, the three

explosions at the true metro spots downtown in brussels happened at a metro stop where there's no security. these are soft targets. for folks in the united states of america looking in, you know what, i take a metro, i take a subway, are those safe, what should we be going to increase security there if we need to do anything? >> well, you -- look, number one, you ought to lead your life. you don't want to be lived in an armed camp your whole life and there's a certain group of people making living live hard. you go in paris there are places that the police don't what to go it's so bad. look at brussels where this guy was being hidden by his friends, okay, his friends are holding him out. he's the most wanted man in the world. he's living right under their noses. the police don't want to go into the areas. they have no control over those areas. and i mean, we as a country have to learn what's going on and frankly, those countries better

get smart fast because they're disintegrating. brussels, i have friends that live in brussels, they said the place is disintegrating. i'm not just talking about today. >> here's a tweet from the united states government, message to those in brussels, shelter in place and avoid public transportation. >> donald trump, a lot of people are listening might be misinterpreting your message, that you have a problem with muslims. you don't have a problem with muslims. in fact, you hired one walid phares to work with you. how do you win over the good citizens and get them to oust the terrorists amongst them? how does donald trump do that? >> there's one of the things, they're very untrusting of people other than muslims and they have people that they know. for instance, the bomber, the people that killed -- if you

take a look back six months ago, the two people that got married, the radicalized, you know, he was radicalized. everybody knew what was going on. they had bombs and guns all over the place. nobody reported them. if they would have been reported somehow that community doesn't believe in reporting. they know exactly what's going on. and they don't know -- they don't believe in reporting to the police. >> what's your message -- >> what's your message to them, donald trump? >> it's not the message to them, but us to, we better get smart fast. my message to them is they have to be more open with the police, they have -- they have to become part of the community. they have to let people know when they see people making bombs in the first floor of an apartment, they have to -- they have to let people know. and they don't do it. then the bombs go off and the guns go off and everything happens and you have the situation like you recently had

in california where 14 people are killed. or you have paris attacks it's going to get worse and worse. in my opinion, this is just the beginning, it's going to get worse. we are lax and foolish, we can't allow the people at -- at this point, we can't allow the people to come into the country, i'm sorry. >> how do you penetrate communities like that? how do you make a difference and make change? >> well, it's not for us to penetrate. it's for them to penetrate. they have to come to us. you know, we're not the victims here. we're act like it's our fault. because that's the problem with the liberal policies of this country and this world. it's acting like it's our fault. it's not our fault, okay? it's not our fault. it's their fault and they have to come out and they have to say, hey, look, this is happening. this can get cleared up i don't know. the thinking is not -- it's just looking to me like this is going to get worse and worse. and it will happen in other locations. and it's already happened big

league in paris and it will continue to happen in paris. look, in paris they have places that the police cannot even go to. they're petrified to go to them. they have no control. they're different zones and they have no control of the areas. and you can't have that. >> donald, i want to clarify one thing. walid phares is not muslim, but he's a christian, and he's an expert in that area. >> let's say you're the president of the united states today. obviously you would have cracked down on immigration. to prevent what you're talking about earlier. what else would you do today? >> well, i would, you know, i guess i would just talk to the people and give them frankly a pep talk. you know, we need a pep talk. we need spirit in our own country, okay? we are allowing thousands and thousands of people to come into our country and we don't even know where they come from and who they are. they're coming in from syria, they're coming in from different -- coming in from the migration.

excuse me? >> you're saying you're going to fix that. >> i'm not going to fix that, i'm not going to allow them to come in. that's fixing that. we don't know what's going on. there's something going on. there's something different. they're not assimilating into society and there's something different. we have to be very, very careful and we have to be very vigilant. this is what i have been saying for a long time. i guess it's at least a small part of the reason why i'm the number one front-runner. i mean, people are very concerned about this and they're very concerned about the security of this country. >> obviously, people coming in from syria, a lot of them are just victims and some that want to pretend they're victims and they're terrorists. what are the other people that want to be americans and want to be muslims? >> you have to be vigilant and checked very carefully. it's a very hard thing to do. if they're coming from syria, it's likely they have no

documentation, no papers, no anything. but if they're coming from other places, if they're muslim they have to be checked very, very carefully. they're having a hard time assimilating no matter where they go. they're not assimilating into other countries. we're not babies, we can't do this anymore. we can't have these attacks anymore. we can't have world trade centers anymore and planes flying into the pentagon. it's time to be smart. it's time to look carefully. and we have to be -- look, people will come in, but we have to be very, very careful as to who comes in to our country. or we're going to have problems like you have never seen. we probably already will have. but we'll have problems like you have never seen before. >> donald trump, thank you so much for being with us this morning. >> thank you very much. >> of course, big votes today on a lesser note. not life and death, but in arizona and in utah on the republican side. >> all right. meanwhile, let's go back to

donald trump's new foreign policy adviser, one of them, what le walid phares testifying about the migrants to the parliament there. it sounds like, according to a couple of people that we have had on the program this morning, speaking of the european parliament, it sounds like one of the metro stops was targeted because it was about 500 feet away from the particular build nag we're talking about. do you see the strikes in brussels today as being symbolic? they hit the train stops, they hit the airport. >> highly, highly a -- adjacent to the parliament. it's a metro station that's used by worker, by staffers and by members of the european parliament of the commission, by nato. so this is a very important location. now, this coupled with the attack against the airport, this

is a strategic strike not just against brussels, but against, you know, the western world. you have two capitals. you have washington and then you have brussels. i'm putting it in a much bigger dimension because that's what the jihadists were trying to do -- send a message. was it really that limited or a much larger operation? belgian sources are telling us and western sources are telling us that the security forces in brussels now, the day is not over yet, are still deployed to make sure other cells are not activated as well. >> you just heard trump interviewing with us and you're a part of his team now. based on what he said, how would you advise him going forward? >> well, i'm shifting from national security analysis to policy. well, definitely we are going to be focusing on understanding the threats. i think everybody at the national security business is doing this and they will do it for campaigns or they'll do it for governments and for the future.

identifying meaning what is the big question. we don't know who they are is the big slogan, basically we don't know who's jihadist and who's not. we have been talking about this for the last 15 years so the next policy should be to actually work with ngos, to work with analysts to identify the people. >> yeah. the u.s. by the way, the white house officially says u.s. officials have been and will continue to be in close contact with the belgian counterparts. the president of the united states is in cuba watching soon the cuban national team playing the tampa bay rays. >> they're saying that security has been tightened at nuclear plants in belgium. why would that be? >> oh, absolutely. it was the case even in france, but it was not this close. nuclear sites are by nature targets to the jihadists.

if they want to do something much bigger than something they don't the planes, it's to attack these sites. in belgium, it's not military sites but to produce electricity and power. i can imagine now that the war rooms of the government are making sure that everything that could be attacked by the jihadists is protected and shielded. inside the cities -- i have sources telling me even in the france and in the netherlands there's some measures being taken. >> this walid, this whole thing, we'll continue to watch the problem, but if you have to go to the heart of the problem, you go to the middle east, where we have allowed this civil war, this brutal civil war to fester for now four years, now we have 200 to 300, maybe 400,000 people that have died. millions have left the country. some of which are just running for their lives, some are coming after getting terror training and we have not come up with a

cohesive plan to end isis and stop this terror network from growing. >> you have three spots in middle east. one is mosul, the other in raqqah and a third one growing now in libya. that's the map. that's the plan. short of having a ground force, not just air force, but a ground force that is trusted, that is not going to replace isis with some other terrorist organizations that would be the iranians, that would be backed by an arab multinational force we're not going anywhere. these cells are going to be growing and growing and expanding in the west as long as the mother ship is in the levant. >> paris was motivated to do something, now we don't hear anything. why don't we give isis a seat at the united nations. >> well, that's what they want. they want to create a caliphate. >> walid, stay right there. we have been seeing images all morning long and online starting

seconds after the terror attacks at 8:00 a.m. out in brussels. >> but we're seeing a new show of support from people all over the world. >> yep. abby huntsman is following it through. >> yeah, what a horrible morning it's been for people waking up all over the world. the horrifying events unfolding at the airport and the metro station also playing out online as soon as the first explosions went off. look at this photo. being heavily shared online. it shows victims covered in flood and dust. one of the woman's shirts blown out completely by the force of the blast. hundreds of travelers stuck outside on the tarmac now being temporarily corralled into the airport hangar. no word on how long they have to stay there. facebook is triggering the safety check to help people locate their missing loved ones. a major show of solidarity, a spanish soccer team, posting this image to instagram saying

no terrorism, we stand with brussels. people using belgium's flag and national colors to send their thoughts of support. another hash tag going viral, similar to the paris attacks from last year. the flowers are taken in front of the embassy in moscow. the images from the tragic scenes continue to pour in. as we have been saying, you guys, people woke up this morning thinking it would be just another normal tuesday and their lives have been changed forever. >> no kidding. i know the phone lines in brussels have been overworked and they're asking people not to go on the phone, but facebook has a safety check. people are wondering what's going on there? how does this work with facebook? you check on your own profile, right? i'm here, i'm okay. >> that's an important point, facebook is an important part.

twitter is a great place to try to locate people. to see where you are, to show people what's going on. this helps everyone in the situation. >> abby, if people want to send you their pictures where do they do it? >> @huntsman, that's my twitter account. today it's so easy to locate people and to find me, to find anyone. if you have anything, if you have photos, try to locate someone, contact us at "fox & friends." >> we came to work planning to talk about the elections, talk about what was happening in arizona and utah today. and we're on a totally different track because of what's happening. >> reality. >> we are -- as the french prime minister said we are at war. >> take the war to the enemy at one point. >> let's bring in van hip, a former deputy assistant to the army and deputy general counsel of the navy as well. good morning to you. what's your observation about what we're seeing this morning

out of belgium? >> well it's right of the radical islamist notebook. don't forget, it's not just about inflicting terrorism, but economic harm and economic damage that's right out of the islamic playbook. look, this needs debut -- i don't know how many more wake-up calls we need in the free world. the fight against radical muslim is a challenge of our times and in new book "what is terrorism and how to defeat it," it's the challenge of our time. >> and you have the president who mocks those who are concerned about the types of people pause they're listed as -- because they're listed as refugees. even the pope is taking those who have problems like that to as thing. when you're tolerant, a lot of times your neighbor is your terrorist or your bomber. when you go to purchase a ticket to travel to an international location, next thing you're a

victim. what do you have to say to people that the government in our country doesn't have our back. >> the political correctness is killing us. the reason we have a government, the reason that the states came together is to provide for the common defense of american people. everything else is secondary. securing the borders of america has got to be the top priority for this country right now. when we have seen like the charlie hebdo murders, the first iman who called for the assassination was that injury. we caught him in the back of the bmw trying to cross the mexican border. robert mueller testified a few years ago in congress that in 2011, we caught 59,000 people from countries other than mexico illegally coming to this country. those countries included pakistan, somalia, iran, syria. let me tell you they're not coming here as part of a church

mission outreach program, but to do harm to america. my question is, where are the ones we didn't catch? political correctness is killing us. the fbi intercepted 18 e-mails between the ft. hood terrorist and the head of the al qaeda in yemen and did nothing because of political correctness. we understand to understand this threat. and mr. president, it's not criminal activity, but radical islam. we need to protect the american people. >> anyone you can think of that might be behind this? >> well, this is pure -- i mean, what we're seeing here, this is pure isis radicalism. so many of the paris attackers and abdeslam, they went to syria, they worked with isis, they have come back in here. i mean, came back to europe, they made a mockery of the whole refugee situation. isis has told us they're going to use the refugee situation to bring jihad to america, just like they're bringing it to

europe. and i was talking a friend of mine in norway today. get a load of this. crickar, the founder of the group that merged with al qaeda, he was released an he's wandering the streets. how much more of a wake-up call does the world need? >> well, you have to step up and pressure your legislators and lawmakers because it's not working the current way. >> it's certainly not. and brian, here's the problem. i say today it is the more dangerous world today than it was after 9/11. technology is changing so correctly, but the government of the united states, the governments of the western european countries are so flat footed and lack the ability to adapt and respond quick enough. so as the technologies increase the threats are increasing exponentially. that's why we have to think

outside the box rather than responding to the last terrorist attack. we need to prevent the next one. >> well, the one that happened today clearly terror. i mean, we understand that at one of the strikes at the airport van hipp, before the guy detonated his bomb, he squeezed off a couple of shots with a gun and then was yelling in arabic. we know it's terror. we don't know if it isis, we don't know what strain of terrorism it is, nobody is taking credit for it yet. the fact that nobody is taking credit for it give isis the ball? >> well, let's see what happens in the next few hours, but it's radical islam. >> it looks like that. there seems to be a tunnel right from the middle east right over to europe and brussels was on high alert to begin with.

it makes you think that everything is coming together to lead you in one direction. >> absolutely. and you know, don't forget about social media. they're killing us on social media. they're recreating the people and brainwashing the kids and we need to turn the table and start to go after them on social media. . brian, we have no land based missile defense on the entire east coast of the united states. they're killing us, the islamists with sabotage and cyber security on the u.s. businesses and the government infrastructure, it's not one magic bullet. but a combination of things to do right now to keep this country safe. it begins with a commander in chief defining the threat for what it is. >> van hipp, thank you so much. let's go back to dr. sebastian gorka, an expert at stuff like that. dr. gorka, as you look at the target, which today was brussels. this is symbolic in in ways because this is the capital of the e.u. for all, you know,

intents and purposes. >> yes. for our viewers, they need to understand that brussels is the washington, if you will, of the european continent. so from the 1950s onwards there's been a push to create a kind of fed rat of europe which become the economic community and now the e.u. and brussels houses the european commission. so that's a bureaucracy for the e.u. and most important of all, really, it houses the headquarters of the north atlantic treaty alliance. so nato -- so we have an incredibly symbolic target that represents the heart of western civilization outside of north america. as a result, it's a very, very attractive target for jihadis. >> do you think the location of nato has something to do with it or it just happens to be there? >> no, i think absolutely. look at 9/11.

in 9/11 al qaeda hit very symbolic targets. the economic symbolism of the world trade center, the military symb symbolism of the pentagon and we know that the third target wasn't the white house, but capitol hill. brussels has all of them, economic, military hubs. so it's an equivalent to an attack on washington. >> we had a guest on a moment ago, mr. hipp, he mentioned the importance of social media surveillance. are we doing enough? >> no, we're not. my colleagues, my friends inside the fbi are doing an amazing job. we have intercepted more than 90 people in the u.s. that are connected to isis in the last year and half. and almost all has been done on the internet. but as a nation strategically we're not taking down the ideologues. we focus exclusively on the masterminds.

they can find people to do brussels type of attacks or san bernardino type of attacks. we must target the ideologues, those who spread the narrative of jihad. we don't touch it because we have an administration that says, you can't talk about jihad. and religion is irrelevant. well, if that's what we're going to be do, we'll be doing whack a mole for the next hundred of years. >> it's extraordinary that the belgian minister warned last week of revenge attacks -- over the last couple of days. now at the maximum level because of the take-down of the terrorist, they grabbed him on friday. they were at maximum terror level in brussels and yet they were able to pull it off. >> yeah. incredibly, this is a man -- think about this. he didn't detonate his suicide vest in paris. and instead of getting out of the continent, hiding in iraq or syria or africa, what does he do? he goes back to where he used to live around the corner from his family's home and he hides in

plain sight for four months and nobody finds him. incredible. truly a real failure of counterterrorism intelligence. >> but dr. gorka stay close, the good news is he's talking, but the bad news is we all know he's talking. this is "fox & friends." it is 8:00 eastern time here in new york city. belgium under siege in what appears to be a coordinated level of terror attacks. it first rocked them at 8:00 a.m. it hit the airport and then 79 minutes later they hit two metro stops across the city. >> at least 28 people are dead. 13 there at the brussels airport, according to the associated press. and then 15 dead at various metro stations across that city, according to the city's metro operator, who also says the death toll is expected to rise. >> now, moments ago we got brand-new images from the damage inside the airport.

and it's extensive. if you're listening on the radio you can see broken windows, charred debris like luggage, ceiling tiles all scattered across the floor. it looks like the hull of a blown out building. >> security officials are telling people to go home, stay inside, lock their doors and the u.s. department of state are telling americans in brussels to shelter in place. >> this morning, the attacks coming days after europe's most wanted man. you see him being taken down. the suspected paris attacker salah abdeslam was captured nearby and he promised that more attacks like what happened in paris were on the horizon. now we're seeing those attacks this morning in brussels. >> we were able to dip into the sky news report of alex rossie. he's a reporter for sky news, he saw it all going down. he's joining us to recap as he tries to process it all. alex, let's listen.

>> reporter: people are very, very frightened. lots of fearful people here. they don't know what's going on. they don't know what's just happened, but i think they can take a pretty good guess. lots of kids around as well. obviously, quite distressed. really there's no army or no police. very very few people directing the passengers where to go and obviously people extremely fearful. >> so that is what's going on. you know, it's amazing too, when you have something like that happen, and you have a reporter there who knows how to tell a story, it goes beyond just an eyewitness account. it's somebody who can construct it while still being a story at the same time. >> brian, we all go to the airport. you expect to go through security and this's when -- and that's when the bad guys are stopped. but in this attack it happened when you walked in the door of

the airport. >> we can walk -- you can walk into any major airport and it's happened one at l.a.x. no one touches you until you turn yourself in to go into the -- >> a terrorist attack can map anywhere. we know that. you have to be vigilant anywhere to go. but where you expect it to happen it's happening before. >> it happened before the security area. one of the explosions according to the european press happened between a couple of the counters there in the departure hall. another one of the explosions i believe was over by one of the starbucks locations. then -- okay. that was the hit at the airport. then about 79 minutes later there were two hit at two important train stations. the maelbeek station and the schuman station. the schuman station is just steps away from the european

union parliament building. as one of our guests said earlier because it happened so early this morning a lotf the people who worked at the e.u. where are getting off the subway train right there. >> kathericatherine herridge isg from the intelligence officials in d.c. what's the latest? >> good morning. the priority right now is identifying the suicide bomber or bombers who were responsible. that's key, because that will lead to the wider network once those bombers are identified. the standard protocol is to share that information with the u.s. government and then to run it through the existing terror watch lists and databases that are house by the national counterterrorism center that was set up after 9/11. we were also told that the other focus is going to be on the

types of devices that the individuals were wearing in this particular case, whether they fit the same pattern or signature as what we saw in paris in november and that would again speak to the broader network and those who were trained by the same bomb makers. also, we are told that there is a credible isis account that has posted a message in arabic that translates as mosul revenge for the capital of brussels. i would not describe this as a claim of responsibility, but we're told it was a credible isis account and it's getting wide pick up by the terrorist sympathiz sympathizers. in addition, we were able to report this morning that the homeland security secretary jeh johnson has been briefed by the operations center, loretta lynch has been briefed also. and they are coordinating with

their counterparts overseas. this is standard practice in these situations and really flows from what we saw after the november attacks in paris. so again, at this point, the u.s. government is engaged. it's looking at the threats over the last 96 hours to see if there was intelligence that was missed, that might have indicated now that this attack was imminent. any intelligence that comes specifically towards the united states as the potential target and then again the priority is identifying the suicide bombers, taking that information and then sharing it widely to run back through the terrorism databases. >> you really outlined it for us. when you talked about the posting and you used a word i never heard of, kufar? >> this is a term used widely among islamist groups to refer to the sinners or the sinning nations if you will.

so secular countries, if you will. for the enemy, the wider enemy. as well. >> catherine herridge, thank you. joining us here in the new york studios is laura ingraham, a fox news contributor and editor of lifezette. what do you think is going on over there? >> i think we're thinking of how we approach the fundamental issues of border control, those who come in on visas, political correctness can sometimes kill. when i say kill, sometimes people are afraid to say something even if they see something. >> sometimes? the whole country is on pins and needles. >> being accused of being islamophobic is worse than the attack.

we don't know the extent that the neighbors in san bernardino shared the information with the authorities, but they didn't. >> because they didn't want to be labeled racists. >> i think again, people jump to the islamaphobia or you're a racist or anti-woman, this is just common sense pragmatism. what are we doing right now to examine our priorities of admission into the country? tracking those people who come into the country from predominantly muslim countries or countries that have porous borders. are we doing what the 9/11 commission recommended -- entry/exit fingerprints. we're not doing that. we were just talking out in the hallway here. people forget those powers -- those towers in manhattan are not longer there and we lost those and we're still talking about this. it doesn't mean we should turn ourselves into the police state, but we should control the borders and be ever more vigilant to come into this

country. >> just like trump. he said the same thing 40 minutes ago. >> we're talking about detecters so people can't do -- they do in moscow. we should do the basics that we're not doing. we're waving people across the border right now. >> brad thor, he wrote this. terror and islam go hand in hand. until the world puts withering pressure on islam to reform, the attacks will continue and get worse. >> absolutely. and we knew after this suspect -- suspect, that the terrorist was brought into custody last weekend they had crossed the border into europe, with the refugees. because he would have been apprehended at a normal entry/exit point, he was they entered europe with the mass of humanity crossing the border into europe, or was until last week. there were dozens and dozens with him, where are they? i don't know how they interrogated this guy.

everyone is like, trump, water board, that's terrible. i bet people wish they had gotten more information from this individual. >> these are the new images we are getting in from that particular departure hall at the brussels airport where -- all sorts of trouble. this was shortly after, you could see the smoke and dust was still settling. apparently the airport has been closed. they're bussing some people to other locations to transit throughout europe. >> every time they conduct a successful terror attack or attempted attack, the terrorists gain more information about response times, the number of authorities who are on the scene, how quickly it takes them to get control of the situation. so i think only you'll see europe on -- i think you will see europe on high alert for the next several days and people in the united states will say we need to put more security apparatus out before you get into the airport, before you get into bus terminals, before you get on a subway.

well, that changes -- in the united states. >> when do you say enough? i mean, because these guys weren't getting on airplanes. this is before you get to security. do we need to put security -- >> no, i don't believe that. that's a big farce. that's a way to spend a lot of money while we are not monitoring the people coming into the country. we have more than a hundred thousand muslims who enter legally every year. most are law abiding people. they don't commit any crimes. >> i'm basically stripping naked before i get on the airline -- >> elderly people, veteran, they're getting patted down, but when you're going into tel aviv, leaving the airport, like i took my microphone taken apart for three hours. they're like, who are you doing in our country. >> they profile. >> i'm sorry, we turned on the

television, i started to watch you at 6:00 a.m., it wasn't a seventh day adventist who carried out the attack. >> after screaming out in arabic phrase, shots went off and a bomb blew up. that starts the last 5,000 terror attacks that we have opened up our show with over the last 12 years. >> and today, the president is going to the tampa bay rays game where -- >> in cuba. >> in cuba. where it's only the invited audience. only people who are screened by the castros to get into that stadium. >> but castro says -- give me a list of names of political prisoners and i'll release them. >> look at who is doing well in the elections, the people who are not scared of political correctness. >> you know to know why trump is likely to win the nomination is because of what he said when he cams on the air. he speaks in a way that frankly my driver spoke to my coming to this studio. like what's -- why are we allowing, you know -- what's happening to this country to happen? why are we doing to this to our nation k. >> and remember the kate steinle

issue? >> and the media accept for fox are not reporting what's happening right at this very moment at our southern border as pierre trudeau to our northern border is waving all the refugees in. >> hillary clinton said that the border is sealed, we have handled the problem at the border already. that's a huge difference. >> that's a lie. she is lying to the american public. >> she knows it. >> she knows it and that's dereliction of duty before you run for presidency. that statement should be driven home by all republican candidate. all three of them left should be talking about this issue. the most important responsibility of any president is to keep us safe. the idea that we're allowing hundreds of thousands of people from hot spot countries overwhelmingly not christian by the way who are coming into the united states it might make us feel better. because we're politically correct. but we can't handle. this. >> how is what happened today in

brussels affect what is happening in utah and in arizona? >> in arizona it's all about immigration. >> i'm not sure it's going to affect much in places like utah. i think trump is not going to win in utah. but in arizona, i just think it confirms what people there have been living whether it's the ranchers and seeing what's happening to their property. all the crime rates. florida, obviously, it's had increased crime because of illegal immigration, texas, california, across this country and in the twin cities region, the somali refugees, how many have gone back to fight with al shabaab. they're radicalized on the internet, go back to fight and come back into the united states? >> i can read a statement, the latest attacks add to the islamic apologists who will be defending those who spawned the murders the public condemnation

that comes from the groups looks like the damage control of their image rather than the heart felt sympathy of the victims. no one is talking about the victims who is being blown apart because they wanted to board a plain. >> and cair will say that donald trump's comments are the problem, because good muslims aren't speaking out. i would say all the muslims who have worked with the u.s. authorities to thwart attacks and alert authorities of what's going on here, we need more people like that who are stepping forward and saying, i didn't like what i saw. or i saw this odd gaggle of people outside an islamic center and i overheard something. we need more of that there's been some of that. to be honest. but we need -- we need frankness in our leadership. we need courage and frankness. we have to dispense with all of the smooth, political correctness right now. we have to protect the homeland and not overly, you know, inconvenience the law abiding people with the police state, thank you. >> but remember we had this similar conversation right after paris.

we need -- >> san bernardino. the ft. dix six -- >> for 24 hours we talked about this stuff and then it just gets further away. >> what do you think about the subways, because we ride the subways here. washington, d.c., people ride the metro there. we saw what happened in brussels. brian asked a great question to the great ambassador who used to live there. he said there's no security on the subways. >> i'm in a rush, i cannot be patted down every day. >> what it does it grows government and it grows government spending and ultimately, we are free people. and we're independent people. our liberty is at stake as we discuss all of this as well. so people should be very careful before we add more layers of government spending when we're not doing the less expensive, common sense things to do in securing our borders. securing the homeland with admission, exit/entry and ports of entry. >> stop the bad guys before they get here. >> well, profiling is profiling

for a reason. it works. >> i think there's something that the president said yesterday that i think it applies here. one of the things when he was ad-libbing with raul -- >> with che pictures behind him. >> every time we hear how we're doing something wrong from the president. >> he goes to cuba, the dissidents tell the true story, he goes there and wants advice from them? and the same thing with china, how can we make the relationship better as they fortify the position in the seas. and they're buying steel companies in alabama and so we're fortifying our enemies' position or at least our military adversary positions, and we're allowing massive amounts of people to come into this country who we can't check

or vet and right now i think this is going to affect the political season. americans want straight talk on this stuff. they want action. they do not want pussyfooting liberal bow down to the cair group and whether it's la raza or cair, it's about america. if you're an american, we have an obligation to you. and to preserving your liberty and safety. >> safety is the key. thanks so much. to catch you up on what's going on, bombs ripping through the brussels airport and just an hour later explosions rocking two metro stations near the e.u. headquarters leaving 28 people dead. >> and dozens more wounded. and we just got this video in. it's the moments right after the explosion at the airport. >> it's terrorists. >> yeah. >> what is wrong, it's terrorists. >> these explosions coming just

days after europe's most wanted man suspected paris attacker salah abdeslam was arrested. >> so why brussels? why is that city suddenly a hot bed for jihadists? let's bring in dr. zuhdi jasser, a former u.s. navy lieutenant and commander and by the way a practicing muslim. why brussels? >> well, because it's sort of a clinic in what happens in the west when you leave populations alone, you allow the separatist groups like shari'ah for belgium, it had multiple members convicted in the past. but yet those organizations continue. you have radical groups, ideologues not only terror cells but supporting communities. you're not a terrorist who's on the lam and goes back to his own neighborhood and hides for four months like he did without a

supporting neighborhood that does that. molenbeek is a prime example. they had over 130 jihadists go to syria from molenbeek alone, let alone the 600 from brussels itself. so they have a deep problem, it's called jihadi central and nobody is treating the ideology of islam, so you'll continue see this whack a mole. >> do we treat it? we know some of the richest people, some of the most affluent people like mohamed atta he had money, he had options, went to college. a lot of the people have options and they choose this. >> well, we need a strategic approach to the muslim community that includes engaging the reformers that ostracizes islamists. not even cair, groups in europe like shari'ah for belgium, but identify these like we did the

communist party and the cold war. we never identified nonviolent allies but today we're engaging moderate islamists who are part of the folks in the stadium cheering on the jihadists. they're supporting them in fuelling the ideas. until we recognize that islam is not a race or a skin color, it is an ideology that supports the destruction of the west which is islamism, which muslim reformers are part of the reason. >> you know in the neighborhood where they took down this terrorist a couple of days ago, there's little police presence there. it's connection between the police and the community and the community is not accepting from the reports i have read of them and so, you know, they are -- they're just a closed, isolated neighborhood where who know what is's going on. right? >> well, exactly.

and the only way you'll get beyond this separatism that continues to widen the chasm is to knock down the political correctness, and begin to see that political islam, the ideology that demonizes the jews and the west, all are part of the same cancer. until we recognize that these are incubators for that and begin to look at their social media presence and connect the dots of their newspapers in the neighborhoods, their twitter presence, and youtube videos, all these things that are not -- right now, by the way, our policies only about countering violent extremism. what is that? it's just terrorism which is a symptom. until we counterviolent islamism which is a theocratic idea

incubated in the neighborhoods and by the way, muslim reformers can do that. but as long as we don't call it islami islamism, you won't unpeel that onion. >> how many times have you heard that islam is a peaceful religion? >> listen, i love my faith. i you know, i look at my kids every day and i fear for the world they'll grow up in because the islam that we love is going to wither on vine if we allow this radical political ideology that isn't a few aprmilitants, they have large movements and they run the governments in saudi arabia and in iran so the huge movement of hundreds of millions is going to destroy our faith if we don't wake up and begin to connect the dots of brussels, paris, of chattanooga, san bernardino. these are symptoms and muslims who love their faith need to get on board and stop the denial or else it's not just about racism,

but about an ideology and the time in history that islam is in today. >> so you say there is hope to reform radical islam and these terrorists that are kilting so many people around the world? >> absolutely. every faith has gone through this. our founding fathers created this wonderful country fighting back against theocracy. until the muslims can begin to reform against the theocrats that are allowing the militants to be created and fueled, we are going to continue to see this. this is not just muslims that grab a suicide belt. it is those who believe that laws should be based in shari'ah, that hands should be cut for stealing, women don't have rights. that's all the reforms that have to be done in order to defeat terrorism. >> instead of going back that far, let's back to the last 15 years the thought was if you give -- if you give these young muslims a sense of life and hope and a future, like democracy, a

representative government they begin to flourish and see the promise and see more than life of being a suicide vest away from ending. so george bush did that. giving people an option to vote on their future, in afghanistan and in iraq and some surrounding cities. next thing you know without the strong man, the place becomes a terror den in libya, syria and you look over in iraq and even in afghanistan as the taliban comes back. in the short term i see no light at the end of the tunnel. >> well, you know, we have done partial solutions. president bush certainly with the freedom agenda was headed in the right direction, but as long

as we don't identify the nonviolent ideology of islamism as the problem, we won't get to the end zone which is muslim reform against theocracy. that's why we haven't had a long term strategy. you can't have a short term strategy unless you have a long term strategy, and we're not headed to defeat the theocrats and all the muslim imagely countries that are brewing calderons of radical islam. they say they're our allies, they're fuelling the militancy that calls me an apostate. they're continuing to be part of the main problem. >> so many times, dr. jasser, after terror attacks we try to get your opinion on what is happening behind the scenes but ultimately, you know, if somebody is in the terror business, what they were able to do today in brussels that goes in the win column for them. >> it does, they're winning. this is a war. and we have to understand that there are so many fronts to this battle. it's a front as you all have been fighting for in the media about free speech, about muslims who will embrace democracy

versus those who embrace theocracy. we have to knock off -- not be afraid to profile and follow ideas, not just following those who want to grab weapons in which often it's too late by the time we realize it. it's a front also in universities where we see the racial evasion of an ideal like islam and islamism rather than confronting debates that we need in our universities. so many fronts to this battle. as long as political correctness and fear of being called a bigot dominates, we can't have the conversation that you and i have had so many times. >> there's a lot of pc and there's a lot of worry about that. dr. jasser, thank you very much for joining us today. >> thank you. >> any time. >> this from the belgium prime minister, he said they were hit by a cowardly attack, he calls the belgians to cope with it by staying unitedn their stance, no doubt it was a terror

operation. didn't take him long to realize that. abdeslam was arrested on friday. >> one of his childhood friends is believed to have orchestrated the entire attack and authorities in belgium are still looking for at least two other men who may have been a part of the attack today. these guys are believed to have been hanging out with salah abdeslam and one of the interesting things that we are learning now, authorities are concerned that when abdeslam was nabbed and he started talking and authorities made it very clear that he was talking and giving some information about the plot and attack in paris, that he may have given up these other guys. these other guys may have been responsible for the attacks today, so authorities certainly want to find out. >> so that's probably why -- >> where they are. >> that's probably why they

pulled the trigger. that guy is singing like a canary, let's go. >> exactly, steve. that's one of the things they're concerned about. they're looking for them. something about who the guys were. salah abdeslam, i don't want to get too complicated and too b g bogged down in the names. he spent his entire life in the molenbeek, an arab neighborhood, and he was a petty criminal. he wasn't somebody who grew up in a very, very religious family. >> he went to jail and got involved with bad guys. >> he did. they all started to meet a bunch of other bad guys. he went to paris with his brother where part of -- were part of the terrorist attacks. his brother blew himself up, he chickened out, headed back to brussels and people were protecting him, including family members. >> we have his buddy, najim laachraoui, they're looking for this guy. on top of that, i think it's

clear that when you had one of the isis guys who turned over all the information of all the militants who had been to syria and back, between that and the friday arrest there must have been a go sign inside the terror world that we have to hit now because they're coming for us, they know where we live. >> exactly. one of the big mistakes that saleh made, he used a cell phone that had gone dark for a certain period of time. investigators had been tracking that cell phone and they made it clear that they were tracking that cell done. we've heard about that, and that's how they found him. we now know their trade craft and investigators gave us that information which could be a tip-off to other bad guys out there. >> found in his own neighborhood, four doors from his parent's house. >> thank you. 8:30 here in new york city. another fox news alert. if you're just waking up, this is the news today. belgium under siege and what appears to be a series of coordinated terrorist attacks.

several explosions at 8:00 a.m. rocked the airport. and then about an hour, 79 minutes later, across the european capital, two metro stops had explosions. >> at least 26 people are dead, at least 11 at the brussels airport according to the associated press. 15 dead at various metro stations according to the city's metro operator who also says the death toll is expected to go up. >> yep. moments ago we got brand-new images from the damages inside the airport. you can see broken windows, charred debris, ceiling tiles all across the floor. >> security officials are telling people across the country to go home, stay inside. lock your doors. >> this morning's attacks coming just days after europe's most wanted man, suspected paris attacker who heather was talking about, salah abdeslam was captured nearby. he promised more attacks like what we saw in paris were on the horizon. and here we are with more attacks today. >> that's right.

meanwhile, sky news correspondent alex rossie had just checked into the airport when the explosions happened. he took us walking through the airport describing the security situation as it was after the bombing. >> security is very tight. it's what you would expect at any modern airport in a western country. this is a country that is on major alert since obviously the paris attacks. the origin if you like about operation was born in brussels in the modern day, and it's quite clear that belgium has a home grown jihadi problem. as a result of that, the security is very, very tight. inner in western countries it's very tight at the moment because there is this ongoing terrorist threat. so security pretty visible everywhere.

>> so where did it happen exactly? well, the explosions were in the departure terminal on the third level, according to the local news agencies. the location was between counters 8 and 9, near the excess baggage payment area. that was the first explosion. the second was near the starbucks cafe in the same area. both these before the security area in the departure hall. >> well, steve, we talked about how other airports around the world are stepping up security. i'm getting report that nypd is stepping up security for the three airports here in new york and also stepping up security on trains, bridges, tunnels, subway stations and the world trade center site here in new york. >> meanwhile, we also have reporters out on the scene. >> benjamin hall is our correspond end in london and has been looking at the charter online this morning and he has

some new developments. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. well, look the death toll continuing to rise. it just hit 34 now and that's 20 in the metro, 14 this the airport. also more information coming out itself. there's a report that a kalashnikov rifle has been found there and there are reports that the suicide bomber fired it off before blowing himself up. there may have been a suitcase bomb which was placed on the floor. so the police are looking at this new information and trying to determine what happened. now, reports that it was near an american airlines check-in, american airlines said there was no wounded or killed among their employees and in the metro, the metro station targeted was close to the u.s. embassy. no definite connection there, but that's what's happening online. you said a lot of charter and isis accounts are cheering this attack using the #brussels on fire. you'll remember that in paris

soon after that attack they used the #paris on fire. it took a couple of days to claim the paris attacks. that's often because they want their operatives to escape or there might still be other operations under way. so we wouldn't isis to claim this right now directly. but if there are operatives trying to flee, then the french and the belgians are -- they're being very careful about this, and shutting down the borders. salah abdeslam the man who was caught a few days ago escaped from paris in the aftermath of the attacks. they're hoping that no one else will escape following this. they knew an attack was coming. the belgian prime minister said they expected this. shortly after the paris attacks belgium and brussels were completely shut down. i was there. and yet no one was found and then things went back to the normal way of life. today, they have been brought back to earth and they have to face up to the fact that they have this huge problem over there. again, you were mentioning his name, laachraoui.

he is being searched as a lead suspect. >> well, benjamin hall, thanks so much. now time to bring in someone we're fortunate to have with us on the couch, the former supreme allowed commander of nato for four years, stationed in brussels and the author of "the accidental admiral." good to see you. so you used to live right around there. nato located right near the airport. tell me your thoughts. >> well, first of all, it's a huge symbolic target, this is the capital of europe in every sense. secondly, comes as no surprise to anybody who's been reading the intel in brussels for years because there are these pockets of islamic radicalism in the area. this is why they went after the front end of this airport. >> you said it's symbolic. >> it is. nato is very engaged globally in iraq, afghanistan, libya, the balkans.

very much focused on operations potentially in syria. i think the jihadis see this as a plum target. >> it's a plum target. at the same time, it's also an area where there is muslim communities which, you know, the guy they picked up on friday he was pretty much hiding in plain sight. he was four doors down from his relatives, he was right there. that's a problem. >> it's a huge problem. where we need to address this and mike flynn my good friend general mike flynn -- >> he's joining us next. >> terrific. he's a great source on this and he'll talk about the need for cyber surveillance for using the kind of tools that we have at our disposal to get into the communities and understand what's going on. >> because getting -- winning them over is almost impossible? >> super long term. that's a possibility. but you and i have talk about this on your raid show, brian n the short term it's going to be surveillance, cyber hard power. and the long term, in the long

game we can play some of the -- >> that's the only way to fight the radical groups. because they're putting things on social media. what are we doing to fight? >> well, the short answer is not enough. we need to understand where they're congregating in the cyber world. go after their twitter sites -- >> aren't we doing that? >> we are, but it's a problem that continues, and it's also a challenge with our own sense of privacy. those two things collide at times. >> and -- >> the fbi versus apple. >> sure. we're not good at doing it. they're better at appealing to people and we had the former ambassador to the united states from belgium on earlier in the program. he said one of the problems with that particular neighborhood, the young men in the presumed terrorist, unemployment is real high. they don't have a lot to do. >> exactly. so you'll continue to see this

kind of problem. it's not just brussels, but throughout europe. >> he's a friend of yours, michael flynn? >> yes. >> why don't we bring him in. he's the former defense -- director of defense intelligence agency under president obama and he's now on the phone. general, i know you have several thoughts and we have the admiral here also. as we look at what's happening in brussels, was this avoidable? >> yeah. first of all, i think jim is right as many of your guests have been this morning. i think the first thing that we have to do is we have to stop apologizing for what we're seeing here and i think some have said it. you know, i firmly believe this and i do write about this in the book that i'm coming out with, this is a political ideology that's wrapped in this false cloak of radical islamism. let's face it, the tragedy that

we have is not working. right now, we're losing -- i'm talking about a big war that's beyond syria and iraq and afghanistan, others you had talked about libya. talking about yemen. now, you know, europe multiple times. we have seen attacks in our country. and i think that jim is right about the social media and that's what we have to do. we have to go after this ideology. i'll stop there for any questions. >> general, you have to say we have to stop apologizing. apologizing for what? >> we apologize because we tend to apologize as though we are going after a religious idea, but this is political ideology and they cloak themselves in the religion. they know this is a weakness of us. they said this in our -- in their writings, they've said this in the interrogations we have done of these guys.

this is a big problem and we have to deal with this in a far more mature way than we are dealing with it right now. and i'm telling you, these guys -- we attack one or two guys in syria or iraq, these guys counterattack strategic targets, like as what we have seen in bruss -- brussels or san bernardino or paris. there will be more of them. and we have to quit kidding ourselves about what we're facing. >> admiral, you want to respond? >> just to follow up on general flynn's comment, all the more important that we coordinate and work with our european colleagues. it's not a european problem or u.s. problem. we have to work together as we both did during our time. >> they can communicate we know from social media. but guys, in the big picture, we have taken forever to take down isis. we have allowed them to spread and fester. i watched an officer testify last week, he says there's no

plan right now to take out raqqah. how does that it a all relate to what we're seeing in europe? >> yes. >> go ahead, general. >> i'm sorry, so very quickly, even that -- i mean, that's a real -- that's a tragedy we don't have a plan for that kind of a tactical operation. but as the admiral is highlighting and others have, this is a larger problem. going into mosul, going into raqqah, those are necessary things that we have to do tactically to basically send a message that we are not going to allow these guys to have a safe haven in a large part of the middle east. but we are going to have to go after this enemy strategically in a much different way. and admiral is right. we have to bring a coalition together. there has to be an arab -- a big, big arab component to this coalition and the arab leaders that are still willing and

understand that they have a problem themselves, they are going to have to be brought together. but that's going to require the u.s. leadership. something we are void of right now, because i have recently talked to many of the leaders in the region, and they want u.s. leadership and it's not there. >> can you name some arab leaders that we should be dealing with? admiral? >> go ahead, mike. >> i'm sorry, well, i mean, there are there are some in the middle east, some in saudi arabia, egypt. >> king hussein -- >> jordan, king hussein. i'm a big fan of al sisi -- >> egypt. >> in egypt. these are individuals who have condemned the action but they need to be brought together under a more cohesive effort by the united states of america leadership. doesn't mean that we have to, you know, provide hundreds of thousands of troops. that's not what it will completely require. but there's going to have to be

more done. >> what would you say about the u.s. leadership? he described it as a void of u.s. leadership. in the last 7 1/2 years, what do you think about how our president is prosecuting this war on terror? >> i would begin by taking general flynn's thought about coalition and building it out. i think we are going to need about 15,000 u.s. troops in iraq in order to bolster the iraqi security forces. we need to maintain about 10,000 in afghanistan. there's not hundreds of thousands but a significant number. second, we need to amp up the bombing campaign. thirdly we need to go after them in cyber and fourthly, we have to build on arab intel resources in the region for boots on the ground. it's a strategy to be put in place, but we have november pursued. >> i how much men do we get from

to a arab -- >> we get some help. we get a little bit of help from special forces but not enough. >> general, your recipe? >> i agree. i mean our help right now is piecemeal, it's uncoordinated and it's not led -- i think that that's part of what we have to do. i would just say that we have to really take a first step is to take a look internally at all elements of national power that are still not as coordinated as they need to be. then we really hone in on how we bring together the rest of the world. i will tell you, you know, a lot of people have given me grief about russia. but i think we have to have a direct discussion with russia as well on this account because they have a serious problem. not to take away what's going on in the ukraine, but this is a global problem. this is a global war. the radical islamist ideology,

they have declared war on us. we have to look at ourselves differently and how we organize ourselves to be -- >> i know they had an opportunity to bomb isis and they forgot, they bombed the wrong people. they didn't go after isis for the last six months and -- they have to leave syria. >> a big point here at the end of the day, we cannot just go after the symptom which is what's happened in brussels today. we have to go after the root of this. >> exactly. exactly right. we have not. >> you guys are a good team. >> well, will we see that happen with this administration? >> i think it's time for a new administration. >> well, you know what? you're going to get one by next year. january. >> whether you like it or not. >> the saying goes, elections have consequences. >> general, admiral, thank you. i heard one of the guys talking

about special forces, we have the navy s.e.a.l. who killed osama bin laden, rob o'neill. your thoughts on what's going on today? >> this is a big problem of the caliphates. look at the attacks in paris, they were ordered in syria, planned in belgium and carried out in france that's what president hollande said back in november. this is a big issue. it's a multinational problem with not just isis, but al qaeda. right now no one has claimed responsibility. this is isis related 99%. >> rob a lot of people we have been interviewing this morning when they looked at the news this morning, they thought, oh, gosh, here we go again. reading the information that the producers have put together after talking to you, you're saying that this isn't the last of us, we'll see more. >> this is definitely not the last of it. the attackers they may have come in with the migrant problem, but

i bet a lot of them were there. a lot of the people grew up in the places. there are parts of belgium and france, up in norway, sweden a lot of police law enforcement cannot go. these -- they're almost fighting on their home turf because they grew up there. this is a big issue, don't get me wrong, they're coming in with the migrants, because they said they would and they are. they' they' they're crossing our southern border in mexico. just because we're having a big election cycle and all we talk about who's running for the presidency, they haven't forgotten about us and they don't care. >> people like to criticize the iraq war and afghanistan, but while you guys were fighting that war, there weren't many attacks here and almost none in europe. they're not content anymore fighting american or allied troops. or special forces in your case now. they seem to be really relishing the opportunity to kill innocent people. >> right. the jihadists when we were fighting in iraq, it was easy to get there and fight americans.

now that we're not doing much -- don't get me wrong, we have guys over there. they'll take back mosul fighting alongside the kurds and all that stuff. but we're not doing enough in raqqah where the center of it is. so they're able to order this stuff an plan this stuff. now they can go through open borders and hit civilians. eventually, what they want to do -- well, eventually they want to take over the world. but they want to hurt us so bad in the west and so we'll pull out and so they'll establish the levant and it's easy for them to hit the civilians right now. >> rob, we have had a number of guests on today, who you feel the same way, given as we look at the wreckage at the airport and also at the subway stations this morning from brussels, things aren't going to get better until we fix it and one of the things to do -- to fix it is to stop being so politically correct. >> we need to stop being politically correct. look at where they hit in the airport today. one of the suicide bombers hit

the american airlines counter. you think that was an accident? that's on purpose. they're letting us know they haven't forgotten about us. we need to stop being pc, realize the issue. we need to get raqqah back. get rid of this so called caliphate. does, the recruiting does not come from guantanamo bay or orange jumpsuits, but from the capital, raqqah. once we stop that, we can stop the hot heads from being recruited an fighting. they're worried about who's the next suicide bomber, we worry about if we're offending them. >> general flynn a moment ago said there was a void of u.s. leadership when it came to this topic. >> well, i mean, the void of leadership i would assume would be just the disconnect between our men and women at the pentagon and the administration. i don't think that -- you know, a lot of them would rather listen to staffers that's right generals and admirals. they need to pay attention to

the smart people at the pentagon. i guarantee there's more than one plan to take care of raqqah, but we're not doing it because there's a few months left until the new administration. >> thank you. >> thank you, rob. let's bring in karl rove and joe trippi. karl rove dealt with 9/11 but what is belgium going through right now? what's your reaction to this, karl? >> well, first of all, a dark day for belgium. one of the things we forget about 9/11 is the grave concern of a follow on event and my suspicion is there's grave concern about other events that would follow on. this is a bad day for the west. but imagine how worse it would be if this were followed by other attacks. i mean, we were worried about attacks on major u.s. symbols like the -- you know, the golden gate bridge and the u.s. capitol. i'm sure that there's similar concern all across europe this

morning, the british prime minister called a meeting of his top anti-terrorism officials, so called cobra committee, there's plenty of discussion this morning about what must be done to ensure that there are no follow on events. what can be done to keep them from striking. >> joe trippi, belgium has been on high alert ever since friday and they told the people, something could be coming. it came. it just -- it's got -- as we look at the pictures of the survivors and first responders, it's heart breaking to know the bad guys were there and they were able to pull it off. >> no, that's right. and the problem with these kind of attacks is they are extremely tough to stop. we have seen this repeatedly. for every time our intelligence and officials have been able to stop one and the same in europe, it only takes one attack to slip

through. and create this kind of havoc. it's not just this, but the follow on effects and not just the potential other attacks, but the number of flights that have been grounded across europe. the impact on the economy of europe. that this kind of attack on the transportation system impact and with the fragility of europe's economy right now, this -- it's not just this attack. horrific and sad and our hearts go out to everybody, but the follow on effects are pretty dramatic and could have consequences that do reach us not just in -- not just with an attack here, but in terms of the economic impact and the economic impact on all of those other countries in europe. >> this is definitely going to jolt the american election. you know, when the economy collapsed everything tilted away

from mccain to obama. when it was about to surge, mccain wins the nomination, and now we have another attack on the heels of san bernardino and donald trump said this to us earlier about actions he would take. >> in my opinion, this is just the beginning. it will get worse and worse because we are lax and we are foolish. we are foolish. i have friends that live in brussels they say the place is literally disintegrating. i'm not talking about today, but in general we have to be smarter in the united states and when people come in, i mean, we're taking in people without real documentation. we don't know where they're coming from, we don't know what -- you know, we don't where they're from or who they are. you look at them and look at it from any standpoint, they could be isis or isis related. you know, we just don't learn. we don't learn. i mean, brussels is an amazing example.

brussels was a crime-free city, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. and now you look at it, it's a disaster. i would close up our borders to people, until we figure out what is going on. >> your reaction to donald trump's reaction, karl rove? >> well, look, we do a pretty good of knowing who's coming in legally, but we don't do a good job of keeping those from coming in illegally. but we can vet most of all the people and if they don't know, they tend not to come into the united states. i would say this. he also paired this yesterday with comments to "the washington post" editorial board in which he once again dismissed nato. brussels is the headquarters of nato. nato is the link between the united states and western europe. a sign of our unity with europe and all conflicts across the world. an attack under our nato agreement, an attack on brussels is an attack on the united states. yesterday, donald trump went to

"the washington post" editorial board and dismissed nato as outdated and unnecessary. the attack in brussels is an example of why nato is needed and why our strong connection with our european allies helps us to fight them over here and not fight them here. fight our terrorist enemies as far away from u.s. borders as possible, that means strong alliances with good allies like belgium and france and the united kingdom and germany and others that have been long stalwarts of nato. >> but donald trump has a lot of fans when he says there's an immigration problem in this country, we can't keep all the bad guys out. there are a lot of people who feel that way. >> well, that's correct. there are a lot of people that he appeals to with that message. and in fact, if we remember it was in the wake of the paris attacks in his position that he would stop temporarily all muslims from coming into the country. that really marked i think his sort of ascent, you know, sort

of the strong man positioning that he took in the republican fight for the nomination that's helped him, you know, and he's benefitted from that. look, i think the one thing that's sort of remarkable about, i agree with karl's comments about nato, but you get the sense that trump is stepping back in his rhetoric and trying to say the same thing but in a more mediated kind of way. we have seen that at aipac and other place. >> karl, the admiral did say we need a new administration because this administration is not doing that they need to fight terrorism. he was saying. folks are going to the polls in arizona and in utah. are we going to see what's happening in brussels translate at the polls? do we normally see when something happens, breaking news, terrorist attacks, more people are going to the polls? >> well, generally it takes a little bit of time for its to bake in.

but the general thrust this year in every single republican contest the turnout has been significantly higher than it was in 2012 and 2008. 70% increase in turnout. i wouldn't expect to see that change in arizona or utah. both are likely to have big t n turnouts four years an eight years. i couldn't agree more with the admiral. that they've declared the war on us, came at us hard and we're in a war basically for the future of western civilization and the president spends his time worrying about cuba and american tourism and not as much time as he ought to be worrying about islamic terrorism and the words can't pass his lips. >> do you think the president should come home or watch a baseball game today? >> i think he's on that trip and i think if there's a reason for him to come back he will do that. i don't think they have -- there's been any indication he

should at any point. >> is this not enough of a reason? >> look, i disagree. i thought one of the most important moments in the aftermath of 9/11 was tony blair flying to the united states to appear with george w. bush before congress. i think the president of the united states needs to go to europe soon and show solidarity in this fight against islamic terrorism. >> that's a difference point. i don't think he needs to come back to the united states from can cuba today. >> what about the fact that he's at a baseball game and he hasn't released a comment yet? >> i'm sure they'll release a comment. look,ic -- look i think the more the president reacts to things like this, look, being at a baseball game -- that's what we do. we keep going on. i think that's what the president should do. >> we didn't play the game. >> all right, joe and karl, thank you so much for joining us live.

as you look at the images, the death toll in belgium now is at 34. over 130 people were wounded. they went to the airports. they went to the metro stop and many wound up dead. bill: good morning. it's happened again. terror strikes in the heart of europe. this the scene from the airport moment after an explosion ripped through the airport. the subway system hit a short time later in the heart of brussels. 26 are dead and hundreds injured in what appeared to be a coordinate attack. welcome to our